BARMM Parliament Speaker Ustadhz Mohammad S. Yacob (right) and MP Atty. Ishak V. Mastura in an event in Manila recently. (Photo: SDN)

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MANILA, December 4, 2025 (SDN) — MARCH 30, 2026!

If anyone still has little clue on the goings-on in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the above-cited date is the schedule of the oft-postponed unique first parliamentary elections in the region.

But there are still petitions or cases filed in the Supreme Court by several individuals from the BARMM, which have the potential to affect the parliamentary polls. Thus, it appears the scheduled political exercise may still be under a cloud of doubts.

In fact, to avoid this, a member of the Parliament (MP) of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), lawyer Ishak V. Mastura, has introduced Resolution No. 772 titled “Respectfully Urging the Supreme Court to Decide or Resolve All Pending Cases in Relation to the Holding of the First Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Parliamentary Elections Before the Date of the Elections Set by the Commission on Elections on March 30,2026.”

“Resolved, as it is hereby resolved, by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, to most respectfully urge the Honorable Supreme Court to decide and dispose of the petitions and/or cases that are pending in the Supreme Court in relation to holding of the first BARMM Parliamentary Elections before March 30, 2026, date set by Comelec for the conduct of the said elections,” Mastura’s resolution pleaded.

Signing his resolution, the scion of the prominent Mastura Clan, a descendant of Maguindanao’s Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat, emphasized in Resolution No. 772 that if the pending cases are decided in time for the date which the Comelec has set, it “will ensure that the conduct of the elections will no longer have any legal or constitutional issues that may complicate or forestall it.”

The BTA resolution also noted that “an expeditious” act of the High Court on the pending cases can a guide as well as set the parameters for revision of any districting law and amendments and revisions of the Bangsamoro Electoral Code (BEC), and any law that Congress may pass on the cited political exercise’s rescheduling.

Read: Aspirants for BARMM MPs’ Seats for the Regular Bangsamoro Parliament Need to File COC as Comelec Sets Date on Jan. 5 to 9

Headed by Chairman George Erwin Garcia, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) set the schedule apparently in compliance with the Supreme Court order to the poll body to hold the historic political exercise not later than March 31, 2026. But not after saying it had no power to do so, but Congress.

Recall that the High Tribunal had earlier declared “unconstitutional” the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 77 and its predecessor, the BAA No. 58, that re-apportioned the seven district seats in the parliament left hanging after Sulu was removed. Yes, by the High Tribunal, when it ruled “constitutional” in a decision in September 2024 the 2018 Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) but severed the province’s umbilical cord from the BARMM family.

The ruling on BAA No. 77 and BAA No. 58 prompted more Moro leaders to file petitions — others were filed before the decision — which, precisely, Mastura’s resolution wanted resolved by the Supreme Court in “an expeditious manner”.

As it was no longer part of the configuration in the over six years old region in Southern Philippines, Sulu left behind seven district seats that has to be re-apportioned, and it was done by the BTA through BAA No. 77 and BAA No. 58 because the 80-seat regional legislative body was reduced to only 73.

The parliament is the legislative branch of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) which officially started to govern in January 2019 mandated to navigate and prepare the processes for transition of the interim regional government to the regular BARMM government.

Just this cold November month, the Comelec in Resolution No. 11181 scheduled the inaugural regular polls in the Bangsamoro region on March 30, 2026, at the same time setting the pertinent Calendar of Activities related to it.

The Comelec was supposed to hold the parliamentary elections in May 2022, reset to May 2025, then to October 13, 2025, and then (finally?), March 30 next near.

In relation with the need for a districting law, the BTA through Parliament Floor Leader and Spokesman Jet Lim has committed to pass the said law inside December 2025.

The Bangsamoro region, established through the BOL to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is comprised 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 up of eight new municipalities. — EDD K. Usman (©)

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The author

EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (®)