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(SDN) September 17, 2025– Is the historic inaugural parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro region on October 13 still hanging on a thread?
Consider this, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Erwin Garcia was quoted as saying in news reports about his “leaning” towards the interpretation that the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 77 had repealed BAA Act No. 58, emphasizing that it “is already a dead law” (per Rappler, Sept. 17, 2025).
And that could mean that if the Supreme Court’s issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) on BAA No. 77 would be deemed final, there would be no framework for the parliamentary polls because BAA No. 58 is “already dead”.
On Tuesday, September 16, the Supreme Court En Banc during its special session a day earlier, issued a decision consolidating petitions relating to the Bangsamoro parliamentary polls such as G.R. No. E-02119 and G.R. No. E-02235 “and issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), and all persons acting under their authority from implementing Bangsamoro Act No. (BAA) 77, pending the final resolution of these cases. The TRO is effective immediately.”
Several petitioners from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) filed G.R. No. E-02119 and G.R. No. E-02235 respectively, seeking “certiorari and prohibition with prayer for TRO challenging BAA 77″ and “certiorari and prohibition and the issuance of a status quo ante, arguing BAA 77 is unconstitutional for violating the provisions on ensuring free, orderly, peaceful, and credible elections during election period, among others.”
The High Tribunal further noted that the BTA Parliament headed by Speaker Ali Pangalian Balindong passed BAA No. 77, otherwise known as the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Redistricting Act of 2025, five days after the election period in the Bangsamoro region,
It could be recalled the High Court removed the province of Sulu from the BARMM family, saying it is not part of the region.
Established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages — now eight new municipalities — that voted “Yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; undivided Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. — EKU (✓)