Featured image above shows MP Tomanda Antok as he relinquishes BFP top leadership to BARMM Chief Minister Abdulraof A. Macacua (right) on August 15, 2026. (Credit: CMAAM)
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KABUNTALAN, Maguindanao del Norte — BARMM Chief Minister Abdulraof “Sammy” Macacua has assumed leadership of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP), strengthening the party’s position as a major political force and a key challenger to the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) ahead of the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Macacua formally took over as BFP chairman on Saturday, August 15, during a gathering in Barangay Gambar, his hometown, where thousands of party members and supporters, local executives, traditional leaders and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members witnessed the leadership transition.
Bangsamoro Parliament Member Tomando Antok relinquished the party chairmanship to Macacua after the Chief Minister was sworn in as a BFP member.
Macacua’s owning the leadership in a change of command comes as the BFP continues to expand its political base across BARMM. More than half of the mayors in Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi have reportedly left the UBJP and joined the BFP in recent months.
The shift has positioned the BFP as a principal political challenger to the UBJP, the political organization associated with the MILF, as regional political parties (RPPs) prepare for the September 14 Bangsamoro parliamentary elections (BPD) .
Watch, video courtesy of Bangsamoro Strategic Communications Team, CM’s Office: BARMM Chief Minister Abdulraof A. Macacua assumes BFP top leadership
Macacua himself had filed his candidacy through an emissary on May 7, initially as an independent candidate for a parliamentary seat covering adjoining areas of Cotabato City and Maguindanao del Norte.
With his assumption of the BFP chairmanship, however, the Chief Minister will now lead the party into the region’s first parliamentary elections.
“I will do my best to make the Bangsamoro Federalist Party become an effective facet for spreading peace, for fostering cultural and interfaith solidarity and political tolerance and understanding among the Muslim, Christian and the indigenous communities in the Bangsamoro region,” Macacua said.
BFP spokesperson and Bangsamoro Parliament Member Naguib Sinarimbo described Macacua as the party’s new top leader.
“Chief Minister Macacua is now the top leader of our party,” Sinarimbo said.
More images from Macacua’s coronation as top leader of the BFP, by CM Office’s Strategic Communications Team:
The BFP is among more than 10 regional parties cleared by the Commission on Elections to participate in the September 14 polls. Other major contenders include the Bangsamoro Party of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) led by Regional Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema and the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo.
The parliamentary elections will determine the members of the regular 80-seat Bangsamoro Parliament and mark a new phase in the region’s transition to parliamentary government.
Established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the Bangsamoro region 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, and the Special Geographic Area (SGA) with right municipalities.
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; plus Special Geographic Area (SGA) with eight. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. (✓)