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COTABATO CITY, June 28, 2025 (SDN) — It’s a go, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia assured on Friday.
He was speaking about the historic first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), that was established in 2019 through the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
As many know, Congress had enacted the law resetting the elections to October 13, 2025, which was supposed to be synchronized with the recent May 12 National and Local Elections (NLE), and signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
The poll body is presently preparing for the political exercise that will vote into office 73 Members of the Parliament (MPs), and transform the transition parliament into the Bangsamoro region’s regular parliament.
On June 27, the Comelec hosted a stakeholders’ briefing about the October 13 polls.
The Comelec chief told the attendees that preparations are continuing even as he assured that it’s a go.
“To our public, the people in the Bangsamoro, tuloy na tuloy po ang (its definite) October 13, [2025] Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections…The Comelec will proceed with the conduct of the election in the Bangsamoro by October 13 and that is very, very clear,” Garcia assured.
He revealed at the briefing that the poll body is not anticipating any “looming postponement”.
Gov’t security agencies tapped to provide safe, secure polls
Apparently, Garcia was referencing the reported attempts to postpone the polls for the third time. It can be recalled that the then-President Rodrigo R. Duterte approved its first deferment from May 2022 to May 2025, as BARMM officials, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), Mindanao-based civil society organizations (CSOs), and other sectors asked for its postponement because of the impact of the 2019 coronavirus pandemic that practically shut down all workings of public and private aspects of life for nearly three years.
In relation with the forthcoming polls, the Comelec assured the region’s inhabitants the polls “will be conducted in a free, fair, honest, credible, transparent, safe, and peaceful manner.”
At least eight regional political parties are contesting the 73 seats (formally 80 in total) with the party garnering the majority getting the opportunity to choose the BARMM’s first regular chief minister (CM).
Presently, the interim CM is Abdulraof Macacua, secretary general of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the political wing of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Marcos appointed him in March 2025, replacing MILF Central Committee Chairman and UBJP President Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim.
The Central Committee, the MILF’s highest policy-making body, Macacua (MILF chief of staff), Maguindanao del Sur Rep. Esmael “Datu Toto” Mangudadatu, Maguindanao del Norte/Cotabato City Rep. Bai Dimple Mastura, re-elected Sen. Imee R. Marcos, other senators, some CSOs, and other individuals support the holding of the parliamentary polls on October 13 as scheduled.
In relation with the conduct of the election in the region, the poll body eyes the repositioning of certain forces of its deputized law enforcement agencies such as the Philippine Army, the Philippine Navy, the Philippine Marines, the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Coast Guard to perform the peacekeeping operations in relation with the parliamentary polls aimed at neutralizing any armed groups who may attempt to disrupt the elections.
While at this, the Comelec urged the Bangsamoro people “to exercise their Constitutional right of suffrage and vote for the Members of the First Bangaamoro Parliament come October 13, 2025.”
Earlier, UBJP Vice President Mohagher M. Iqbal in a press conference at the Senate in Manila with Senator Marcos read a statement of the MILF Central Committee asking the President, the Senate and the House of Representatives to see to it the election for MPs is held as scheduled.
In the May 2025 Bangsamoro political exercise, the UBJP’s bets for governor in Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, and Tawi-Tawi won over their opponents, as well as triumphant in some key mayoralty posts in various areas of the region.
The BARMM is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, and Tawi-Tawi; the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi; and the Special Geographic Area (SGA) made of eight new municipalities carved out of North Cotabato province.
Observers believed the parliamentary polls would be a highly competitive one, especially with Sulu no longer part of the Bangsamoro family since September 2024. — EDD K. Usman (√)