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MANILA, January 30, 2026 (SDN) — No parliamentary political exercise this year on March 30. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) headed by Chairman George Erwin Garcia made this certain!
For months, anticipation and doubts combined on whether the first-ever and unique parliamentary polls in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) would ever happen.
As developments unfolded today, Wednesday, Nada!
Garcia led the poll body in an En Banc meeting after which they promulgated Comelec Resolution No. 26-0071 deferring “the conduct of the BARMM Parliamentary Elections scheduled on March 30, 2026, until a new date is fixed by law.”
2 Most relevant pages (Nos. 13 & 14) in Comelec En Banc Resolution No. No. 26-0071 re: deferred March 30, 2026, BARMM’s supposed 1st Parliamentary Elections
The En Banc emphasized that the election timelines for the first Bangsamoro regular elections “are already too proximate which rendered the conduct of the BARMM Parliamentary Elections no longer feasible.
Before passage of Parliamentary Bill No. 415, Congress had no plans to file bill to resent polls
In short, as gleaned from the 17-page Comelec resolution, its “Bangsamoro Study Group submits that the automated BPE be conducted in September 2026 at the earliest.”
This is because, as per the resolution, the late passage of Parliamentary Bill (PB) No. 415 had compressed the timeline of the March 30, 2026, elections in the Bangsamoro region, and that “it has become operationally infeasible to conduct automated parliamentary elections (BPE) by 30 March 2026 without risking significant administrative and technical deficiencies.”
Continuing, the En Banc resolution declares: “Wherefore premises considered, the Commission, after due deliberation, RESOLVED, as it hereby RESOLVES, to DEFER the conduct of the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BARMM PE) scheduled on March 30, 2026, until a new date is fixed by law.”
“Fixed by law”?
As many know by now, only the Congress has the authority to fixed dates for the country’s elections.
And in relation with this fact, and after the passage of PB No. 415, now the the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 86 of 2026, or the “Act Providing for the Apportionment of Parliamentary District Seats in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)”, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Ziaur-Rahman A. Adiong had already filed this month House Bill No. 7236.
Adiong, also of the Alonto Clan, chairs the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, as his proposed measure seeks to amend the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) — Republic Act No. 11054 and fills the legal divide which the Supreme Court had created when it declared “unconstitutional” BAA Nos. 58 and 77 last year.
“By addressing this statutory gap, the bill ensures that the first BARMM parliamentary elections can proceed in a peaceful, orderly, and fully lawful manner, in full compliance with the Constitution, the Bangsamoro Organic Law, and prevailing jurisprudence,” the Maranao House leader points out. — EDD K. Usman (/)
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To be updated.
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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. (®)