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MANILA (SDN) — Whatever impact it has on the first parliamentary polls on October 13, Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Bill No. 351 is now a law called Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 77.
It amended BAA No. 58 that provided for the Bangsamoro region’s parliamentary districts.
The bill authored by the Government of the Day of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) calls for the redistricting of seven district seats that Sulu left behind after the Supreme Court removed the province from the BARMM family in September 2024.
On August 28, BARMM interim Chief Minister Abdulraof A. Macacua signed the regional law which the BTA Parliament enacted on August 19.
Parliament Speaker Ali Pangalian Balindong was not able to sign the legislation, it was instead signed “for” him by Deputy Speaker Nabil Tan, according to a source from the Parliament.
“I was there when Deputy Speaker Nabil Tan signed it,” the source, who is Member of Parliament (MP), says in a message to SDN – SciTech & Digital News. “What’s important is that we finished our task of passing the redistricting bill. It’s not in our hands anymore.”
He said the law is now in the hands of the Comelec headed by Chairman George Erwin Garcia, who was cited in news reports that the poll body is preparing for the election of 73 seats, not 80, saying the law will take effect after the first regular regional political exercise.
The MP source said the law gives the President (presently Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.) power to appoint MPs should a vacancy emerges in Parliament. He added that it is not clear if the presidential power to appoint MPs for the Parliament is referring to the reapportioned seven seats.
“Let us wait and see, there are debates that emerged even during plenary sessions for the then-BTA Bill No. 351, and I expect some more pros and cons after it was signed into law,” the MP source adds.
With the redistricting, or (re)-apportionment of the seven district seats, the new BARMM configuration gives nine seats for Lanao del Sur, plus one for Marawi City; five each for Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur; four each for Basilan and Tawi-Tawi; three for Cotabato City; and two for the Special Geographic Area (SGA).
The Bangsamoro region which was established in January 2019 by Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), or Republic Act No. 11054, to implement the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB). On March 27, 2014, the Philippine Government (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the CAB, ending the Moro people’s decades of struggle for self-determination and bringing much-sought peace and stability in Southern Philippines, particularly Central Mindanao. — EKU (/)