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DIAMOND HOTEL, Manila, December 11, 2025 (SDN) — There’s no plans of the House of Representatives to pass a bill on a new date of the Bangsamoro region’s first parliamentary polls, as relayed to SDN – SciTech & Digital News today, Thursday, by Lanao del Sur Rep. Ziaur-Rahman “Zia” Alonto Adiong.

The House’s inaction is in spite of the fact that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) had already asked Congress for a bill setting the inaugural regular elections of the still-in-transition Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and is being governed by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) since January 2019.

Adiong, 1st District of Lanao del Sur, one of the component areas of the BARMM, was a panelist at the “MOVE: Maximizing Opportunities and Valuing Elections through Electoral Reforms” Summit in this five-star hotel, bringing along his familiarity with the political developments, issues, and concerns revolving around the Bangsamoro.

He granted SDN a brief interview, mainly fielding questions on what’s the House’s sense as far as the oft-postponed parliamentary political exercise is concerned.

“Ang position ng House ay hinihintay po natin ‘yong redistricting (law) kasi iyon po talaga ang dahilan kung bakit na-postponed and elections sa BARMM. Dapat po talaga noon October 13 this year. Dahil sa redistricting meron nag-file concerning the constitutionality of the BARMM redistricting,” the congressman, speaking in Filipino, emphasizes.

(Translation: The position of the House is we are waiting for the redistricting (law) because that is really the reason why the BARMM election was postponed. It should have been last October 13. Owing to the redistricting there were who filed petitions questioning the constitutionality of the BARMM redistricting.)

He added that because of this development in the region’s political situation, the House is waiting. The position of the House is to await the adoption and approval by the Parliament of the redistricting, a fresh redistricting.

“That’s the only time we (at the House) will file with a bill on the BARMM election’s exact date,” he adds. “We already talked with the Comelec, with Chairman (George Erwin) Garcia, because it was said in the Supreme Court ruling that the redistricting should be passed by the Bangsamoro Parliament on November 30,” the Bangsamoro solon says.

SDN interviewed the House leader in the wake of the poll body already asked Congress to set a new date for the Bangsamoro polls.

Though the Comelec in deference to the Supreme Court decision has set March 30 next year as the new date for the parliamentary polls, nevertheless Garcia made the request to Congress.

Adiong clarified the Comelec has no authority to set a date for the BARMM election, only Congress has, adding the Senate already has its own bill for the purpose of setting a new date.

He maintained, though, the House filing a bill to set the date is premised on Parliament’s adopting and approving a new redistricting law.

The House leader noted that the High Tribunal highly recommended and suggested in its ruling that there should be elections before March 31, 2026. “The Senate already has a version that it should be March 30, 2025, in compliance with the Supreme Court ruling,” he adds.

He was referring to the Supreme Court’s declaring as “unconstitutional” the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 77 and BAA No. 58 on the BARMM redistricting of the seven district seats the province of Sulu had left behind after it was removed from the Bangsamoro region by a prior High Court ruling.

Adiong: Only advantages for BARMM if the parliamentary elections are held

“So, unfortunately, they (BARMM members of the Parliament — MPs) have no filed a (new) redistricting bill. That’s the pre-requisite and the cause of the postponement. Our counterparts in the BARMM said they are going to file before the end of this year.

“So, that would affect the timeline. The Supreme Court did not say they will be penalty on anyone if it will not be passed.”

It can be recalled the first parliamentary political exercise was to be held in May 2022, then moved to May 2025, them again reset to October 13, 2025, and a prosect of fourth (or fifth?) postponement clouds the seemingly ever-uncertain political climate in the Bangsamoro region.

Adiong assured that if a new redistricting bill is passed the “House may then file our own version. Most likely the Senate and the House will meet in a Bicam(eral) to resolve (issues) via Bicam meeting. But our position is there should be elections in BARMM by 2026.”

The legislator from the Bangsamoro region said the Comelec has set December 2026 for the Barangay Elections, saying the BARMM polls should be held six months before it.

SDN asked him on possible “pros and cons” about the Bangsamoro regular polls being held or not.

Only pros, he made clear. “All the advantages for the BARMM, especially they are still in the transition phase. So, to avoid what they are saying about instability, the Bangsamoro region can only be stabilized if those in position have mandate and chosen by the people. The BARMM has completed its work, they already passed the six priority codes according to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro,” Adiong points out.

He said the BARMM already implemented institutional building, they now have the required personnel to run the BARMM bureaucracy. “So, there is no longer a reason not to have elections to return to the people their right to choose their leaders.”

With Adiong in the two-day event’s Panel 1 included Atty. Ma. Anne Tonette S. Rivera of the Comelec and Atty. Ona Caritos of LENTE. LENTE’s Atty. Helen Maureen Graido facilitated the discussion.

Caritos presented some of LENTE’s Reform Agenda for the 20th Congress, among them:

• 1. Enhancing the independence of Comelec Field Officers,
• 2. Strengthening Campaign Finance Laws,
• 3. ASR (Abuse of State Resources) Reforms & Level Playing Field,
• 4. Improving Accessibility & Inclusiveness of Elections

LENTE has tasked itself to conduct a “purposive and systematic monitoring of the entire electoral cycle — pre-elections, election period, and post-elections — to lobby for data-driven electoral legal and policy reforms.”

On the other hand, Rivera presented some of Comelec’s Key Innovations on the Administrative side, such as on Mall Voting to improve accessibility and voter turnout, as well as Register Anywhere Program for better voter accessibility and at the same time decongest election offices (EOs). — 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. (©)