DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 08 February) – The Senate Committee on Local Government has also proposed the second Monday of September this year (September 14) as the date of the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections but issues on sectoral representation need to be addressed immediately to ensure no further delay.
Resolving the issue of electing the 32 single district representatives out of the 80 Members of Parliament in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) took some time it delayed the conduct of the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) but now, it’s the issue of electing seven of the eight sectoral representatives that, if not resolved, could delay again the conduct of the election.
“We reset the first regular session for the BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) Parliament September of this year, synchronized with the House version, preferably on the second Monday of September,” Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, chair of the Senate Committee on Local Government said after the joint hearing with the Committees on Electoral Reforms and Finance that took four hours and 39 minutes on Thursday, February 5.
At the House of Representatives two days earlier, the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms approved a substitute bill that set the date of the 1st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) to the second Monday of September and every three years thereafter. It also proposed that the first elected Members of Parliament will assume their posts on December 1, 2026.
Choosing the date of the election was among four points Zubiri cited in his recap of Thursday’s hearing. “So, we have achieved a few things today. Number one is the BAA 86 and other related BAAs have complied as what we have seen today, complied with the Supreme Court decision, the Constitution, the BOL, and other existing laws,” he said.
Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) 86 is the new districting law passed by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) last month. The two previous districting bills were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on September 30.
The second issue is the date of the election and the third is “… we might need this, gentlemen and ladies of the BTA, a resolution of the BTA Parliament be passed expressing that the conduct of the first regular election of the BARMM Parliament is primordial consideration over the plebiscite (on) the division of the municipality of Datu (Odin) Sinsuat and that plebiscite can happen after the first regular elections of the BARMM and Parliament. That will also be able to guide the Comelec that we are already in preparation for the election.”
Number four, he said, “the next regular election shall be held every three years.”
The fourth supports the move of the House Committee that recommended the desynchronization of the BARMM polls from the national and local elections.
“I am in the agreement that we should protect the mandate of three years (term) for the members of the Parliament. Meaning since this will be a special law, we will not synchronize the succeeding BARMM Parliament regular elections with the national and local elections. And that also gives us time to focus on the regional elections in the BARMM each time,” Zubiri said.
He thanked those who attended the hearing. “This is a big step forward towards peace and progress,” he said.
He instructed his staff and committee secretary to prepare the Committee report based on the discussions and agreements and vowed “I commit to you that we will pass this third and final reading before our break this March.”
The Senate and House of Representatives’ last session day before the break is March 20. It will resume sessions on May 4.
Questions
But several questions were raised during the hearing, particularly on the manner of electing sectoral representatives.
After the passage of the new districting law, the 77-member Bangsamoro Parliament passed two new laws amending the Bangsamoro Electoral Code.
Parliamentary Bill (PB) 396 removed the “None of the Above” (NOTA) choice in the ballots while PB 419 lowered the membership requirement for accreditation of regional parliamentary political parties from 10,000 to 5,000, and the threshold for voting of party representatives from 4% to 2.5% of the valid votes cast. It also called for a new registration of political parties and sectoral organizations.
PB 419 in particular changed the manner of voting of sectoral representatives in the first BPE from sectoral assemblies to direct voting by plurality votes, except for the Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples (NMIP).
The election of the two NMIP representatives “shall adhere to their customary laws and indigenous processes.”
8 of 80 Members of Parliament
BARMM voters are to elect 80 Members of Parliament: 40 political party representatives, 32 single district representatives , and eight sectoral representatives.
The BARMM is a product of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace agreement signed by the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), after 17 years of negotiations.
The CAB’s enabling law, RA 11054 or the Organic Act for the BARMM, provides for eight reserved seats for sectoral representatives: two each for NMIP and settler communities; one each for women, youth, traditional leaders and Ulama.
At the Senate Committee hearing, lawyer Mary Ann Arnado, former Member of Parliament representing the settler communities, noted that the Office for Settler Communities had certified around 268 organizations of settler communities across the BARMM that have “successfully established verifiable track record in serving the needs and promoting the welfare of settlers.”
“Last January 28, 2026, we were shocked, dismayed and disgusted that the BTA Parliament amended the Bangsamoro Electoral Code which arbitrarily revoked the certification of all sectoral organizations, including the settler communities.
By sheer legislative action and without any consultation, the BTA took the hopes of thousands of Christian settlers in the BARMM. The BTA literally cancelled our much cherished certification and is requiring us to start anew,” she said, reading from the statement.
What makes it worse, Arnado stressed, is that PB 419 changed the manner of election of sectoral representatives from sectoral assemblies to direct plurality of valid votes cast for the respective sector.
“The Parliament changed the manner of election to direct plurality of votes and that will practically take away the reserved seats for the marginalized sectors and leave us all at the mercy of the majority who can now dictate who will be representing the settlers in the Parliament,” she said, adding effectively forecloses the seats reserved for settlers.
“It is called reserved precisely because there is no way Christians will be able to compete with the majority in a popular election. We are no strangers to the election in the Philippines, especially in the BARMM. Instead of the promised electoral reform, this will slide back to the usual ways,” Arnado said.
She asked the Senate to “help us secure what is rightfully reserved for the marginalized sector. Give to the women what is due for the women, give to the youth what is reserved for them, and give to the Christian settlers what is due to us.”
“Most powerful MPs”
BARMM Deputy Speaker Ishak Mastura, also a lawyer and one of the principal authors of PB 419, told the Committee that under the amended BEC, the sectoral representatives would be “the most powerful MPs” because they will be voted at large but only the sectoral organizations can nominate them.
“So yung list na yun ng pangalan nila, limited, potentially they can agree among themselves, one or two lang ang i-nominate natin. But with a mandate from the people, from the whole of the Bangsamoro, they’re like regional senators. Potentially they become Chief Minister. Hindi lang sila marginalized,” he explained.
MP Naguib Sinarimbo, chair of the Parliament’s Committee on Local Government, said sectoral representation “is a constitutional challenge that we needed to address” in the amended BEC. He said the 1987 Constitution under Article 10 provided that representation is “very clear, by election.”
“We will be stretching beyond legal recognition yung concept of election if we allow yung assemblies of organizations. Because in reality that’s not an election,” he said.
RA 11054 or the Organic Act for the BARMM, provides under Article VII, Section 7 that the Parliament “shall determine the manner of election of the reserved seats and sectoral representatives” except for the NMIPs.
The problem with the original BEC, Sinarimbo said, was that all sectors were exempted from direct voting instead of just the NMIP as mandated by the Organic Law.
Bangsamoro Peace Process
Deputy Speaker Lanang Ali Jr. read the position paper of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) which is recommending, among others, “to uphold, respect, and sustain the legal status of accredited regional political parties and sectoral organizations already approved and granted by the COMELEC,” and for the manner of election of sectoral representatives to “proceed in accordance with the Bangsamoro Electoral Code and the Comelec implementing rules and regulation which is through sectoral assemblies to avoid disenfranchisement of marginalized sectors.”
The UBJP said the hurriedly passed laws amending the BEC “should not be allowed to trigger another delay or postponement in the parliamentary election” as it reminded everyone that the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary Election “is not an ordinary election” but part of the commitment of the national government and the MILF in the peace process.
After reading the statement of Parliament Speaker Mohammad Yacob, Deputy Speaker Shah Elijah Dumama-Alba, cited the opposition to the amendments of the BEC. She said traditional leaders like the Sultans, “would have to be voted directly by the people regardless of whether they are fellow sultans or fellow royals.” Traditional leaders, like the Ulama (Islamic scholars) have a reserved seat in the BTA.
“One consideration of not including them doon sa direct plurality of votes na manner of election is because they are Islamic scholars that cannot be tainted by politics. Kung halimbawa iikot sila para mangampanya, yung kanilang sektor ng ulama ay maaaring ma-taint po” (If for example, they go around to campaign, their sector could be tainted by politics), she said.
Dumama also noted that under the original Electoral Code, election of sectoral representatives through assemblies is only for the first election because in the next election, it will be direct voting for the representatives of women, settlers and youth, and those who will vote for these sectors will be based on the special registration of voters to determine the demographics.
Arnado said the Electoral Code provides for special registration for sectoral voters. “Because in the absence of a special registration, we will have no way of knowing who will be the voters for the settler. We have to determine who will be the voter for the women and who will be the voter for the Ulama. So in this situation, absence of special registration, everyone — the 2.3 (million) voters in the BARMM, will be able to vote for the women … for all sectors. So that is our fear because if that is the case, then we dilute the concept of reserved seat because it will now be dictated by the majority.”
“If possible, our policy makers, can you sit down?”
Lawyer Benedicto Bacani, Executive Director of the Cotabato City-based Institute for Autonomy and Governance and lead convenor of the Independent Election Monitoring Center (IEMC) told the Committee that as election monitors and on behalf of the citizens of the BARMM, “if possible, our policy makers, can you sit down? I said, don’t these people have a Viber group? And then be open to amending again (PB 419). There’s still time after you talk to Comelec. Because really, can you imagine? The women or the settlers will (be voted upon by) everyone. Talagang captured ng politicians yan.”
“Why? Because the politicians are block voting. So they’ll just come up with their own candidate for women. Everybody will vote because she’s at large.
So will that be really representing the women’s group?,” Bacani asked.
Deputy Speaker Randolph Parcasio, a nominee of the Moro National Liberation Front to the BTA, noted that in able to “move forward effectively, the Comelec and the national Congress must forge a synchronized partnership to resolve the current electoral limbo plaguing the BARMM.”
Supreme Court
Concerns were earlier raised that gerrymandering was again resorted to in the new districting law passed in the early hours of January 13 and signed into law — Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) 86 – on January 21. Gerrymandering was among the reasons why the Supreme Court declared BAA 77 unconstitutional.
According to Comelec chair George Garcia, BAA 86 takes effect on February 11.
No petition has been filed as yet before the Supreme Court, questioning the constitutionality of the law.
In a statement dated January 14 but posted on the social media page of MILF Chairman on January 16, Al Haj Murad Ebrahim (real name: Ahod Balawag Ebrahim), MILF chair and Bangsamoro Chief Minister from February 2019 to March 2025, claimed the new districting law passed “raises serious constitutional questions,” but did not say if they were going to the Supreme Court to question its constitutionality.
Instead, he urged the public to “actively participate in dialogues and continue to be vigilant.”
MindaNews asked MILF Peace Implementing Panel chair Mohagher Iqbal if they were filing a petition before the Supreme Court to declare the new law as unconstitutional but Iqbal replied on January 25: “No plan.”
Forty-eight MPs voted ‘yes’ to the new law, 19 voted ‘no’ and four abstained.
End of transition period
The 1st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections was originally scheduled for May 2022 but this was reset to May 2025, rescheduled to October 13, 2025 but did not push through because the Supreme Court declared the two previous districting bills as unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court directed the BTA to pass a new districting law by October 30 to meet the target date of no later than March 31, 2026. But the law was passed on January 13, rendering it impossible to hold an election by March.
The House Committee wants the assumption of office of the first elected Members of Parliament to be on December 1, 2026. Their assumption to office also marks the end of the long-extended transition period and paves the way for the governance of leaders who are not appointed by the President but elected by the Bangsamoro people.
By December 1, 2026, the transition period will have reached seven years, nine months and nine days. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)(Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
