DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 26 May) – How do regional parliamentary political parties envision the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) beyond October 30, the end of the transition period that started in February 2019 and the beginning of the BARMM’s regular government?
Representatives of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), Mahardika, Bangsamoro Party (BaPa) and the Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP) presented their platforms of government at the Bangsamoro Beyond the Transition Period forum on Saturday, the activity that capped the three-day 3rd Mindanao Book Festival initiated by MindaNews in partnership with the Ateneo de Davao University.
Moral governance, education, health, peace, were among the common issues presented by the political parties. At least three parties cited the need to “constitutionalize” the unimplemented portions of the peace agreements which were not made part of the laws that created the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the BARMM.
Mahardika is the political party of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under MNLF founding chair Nur Misuari, while BaPA is the party of the MNLF under Muslimin Sema. UBJP is the party established by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014 after the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) between the Philippine government and the MILF on March 27, 2014, after 17 years of peace negotiations. It was registered with the Commission on Elections in 2015.
Mahardika Party
Mahardika Party’s 1st nominee Ustadha Nur-Ainee Tan Lim and TOWNS Awardee for 2025, presented Mahardika’s seven-point “FREEDOM” agenda. Mahardika comes from Merdeka which means freedom.
Mahardika is the political party of the founding chair of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Nur Misuari, Lim’s father.
She said Mahardika adheres to the principles of egalitarianism, equality, and sovereignty in terms of our autonomy in the Bangsamoro region and making sure that development and progress follow the peace deals earlier signed. “Anyone can be a member of the Mahardika Party,” she said.
She said their core groups are spread across the BARMM’s five provinces and three cities and the Special Geographic Area. “It doesn’t matter if from whatever social class you come from, if you’re Muslim, Christian, IP, youth, women, we invite everyone to be part of the Mahardika Party. So our vision statement, simply put, we envision a Bangsamoro society that is just, inclusive, and prosperous where people live in peace and compassion enjoying the benefits of genuine autonomy and living a life of dignity.”
Lim said they crafted a seven-point FREEDOM agenda to make for easier recall. “We are number 7 in the ballot.”
She explained the meaning of the letters: F for freedom preserved as individuals, as a people, sovereign, dignified people of the Bangsamoro; R for responsive and real autonomy; E for economic opportunities to all. E for Education, quality education and essential health services. D for Durable peace and unity, a just and lasting peace that unites all Bangsamoro communities. O for open and honest governance and M is for Mobilizing the next generation of women and youth to lead, innovate, and shape the future of the Bangsamoro.
On governance, Lim stressed that “one thing that is unique in BARMM is what we call moral governance, and with moral governance, it’s not just ethical governance but also expediency in the delivery of service. So it has to go hand-in-hand wherein integrity, compassion, and expediency are all in the middle of service to the Bangsamoro people.”
“We are here to make sure that we give the greatest inheritance to the youth: a world better than the world that we live in,” Lim said.
Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP)
Lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, Member of Parliament and BFP spokesperson and Cotabato City chapter president, said the Bangsamoro is currently at the last stages of the transition period. “And then we’ll go into the regular government for the Bangsamoro. So the party is really established to offer an alternative post-transition and a more inclusive political party which is built not very restrictively doon sa mga grupo-grupo lang” (for select groups only)He said their members include those coming from the revolutionary organizations, current members of the parliament, local government chief executives, representatives from communities, Indigenous Peoples, youth and ulama sector.
Sinarimbo, a member of the legal team of the MILF peace panel in the negotiations that led to the signing of the CAB, said the peace agreement followed “a federalist setup.”
He recalled the insistence on a list of powers or what has come to be the powers of the national government and powers of regional government but given that the Philippines is a unitary system, “even if it grants autonomy, it is simply a delegation of the power, read in accordance with the existing jurisprudence in the country.”
“Ibig sabihin niya, pag delegate sa’yo, yung nag-delegate noon, pwede niyang bawiin, pwede niyang i-amend, pwede niyang i-restrict yung delegation noon. (This means that if it is delegated to you, whoever delegated it, can take it away or amend, or restrict). And so from the very start, our idea was to break up the unitary state of the Philippines,” he said.
He said the CAB, when translated into law through RA 11054 or the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, “nabalik tayo doon sa unitary na setup pa (we reverted to the unitary setup) so we are again back to the autonomy grant in accordance with the unitary constitution in the Philippines.
“The framework of federalism provides us a continuing relevance via transition doon sa conversation about what do we need to do in the Bangsamoro and in relation to other regions,” Sinarimbo said, adding that as it stands, the CAB was signed but its operationalization was through a legislation that can be changed anytime.
This is why there is a need to “constitutionalize that” because federalism “would allow us to fully implement the CAB.”
He cited the CAB’s provision on policing, which has not been implemented because the Organic Law for the BARMM does not allow it.
“You’ll have to make amendments to the Constitution if you want policing in the Bangsamoro which is a very specific provision in the CAB to be operationalized,” Sinarimbo added.
Sinarimbo said the BFP continues to adhere to the call of former Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim for moral governance.
He said for parties to get 10 seats in the Bangsamoro Parliament, that would require at least 400,000 votes. “We have to acknowledge the realities on the ground. And the way to do that is to become more inclusive and to be open for coalitions. It can be a coalition of political parties before an election or a coalition government after an election.”
“We still want to preserve (the) gains of the peace process and enhance the same. Even if we are open to a federalist setup, we recognize (that the) fiscal arrangement currently existing in the BARMM and the national government is one of the best,” he said, adding that given the “war” situation in the past 50 to 60 years in what is now the BARMM, there are no big industries yet and taxes collected from existing businesses are still low, “it won’t reach the current level of 5%.”
The Bangsamoro Government has an annual allocation for block grant equivalent to five percent (5%) of the net national internal revenue tax collection of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the net collection of the Bureau of Customs.
The BFP, he said, proposes to preserve the current fiscal arrangements “even if we go federal.”
Going federal, however, requires amending the 1987 Constitution.
Sinarimbo’s long introduction on federalism ate up most of the 15 minutes allotted for each party. He was not able to expound on the BFP’s 20-point platform of governance, managing only to cite the need “to make some legislations, policies that favor … locals before you go into completely opening up the region for investment,” and right-sizing the bureaucracy in the region.
The forum’s facilitator, Gus Miclat, Executive Director of the Initiatives for International Dialogue, noted that members of civil society a decade ago were “also trying to propound this Bangsamoro project as a template for the dream of a federal government in the Philippines. But we all know what happened next. That’s another panel, that’s another story.”
Bangsamoro Party (BaPa)
BaPa, the political party chaired by Muslimin Sema, now Labor Minister, was represented at the forum by his son, lawyer Omar Crisostomo Sema, Member of Parliament since 2019.
Sema recalled that BaPa registered with the Commission on Elections shortly after the UBJP did. “So together with the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, we are pursuing the same platforms of government actually. And it’s quite amusing that the Bangsamoro Federalist Party is also at some point pursuing some of the objectives that the Bangsamoro Party and the United Bangsamoro Justice Party are pursuing,” he said.
The Bangsamoro Party “is for one people, one homeland, and one strong self-government,” Sema said.
“We always consider that whoever are in the (BARMM), kahit sino ka pa, whether you’re a Maguindanaon, a Maranao, a Tuareg, you’re an Ilonggo, Ilocano, Tagalog, you’re Lumad, you’re Teduray, you’re Manobo, we consider you people of the Bangsamoro. And we are one with you. We are one in your struggle. We are one with you in your struggle,” he said.
This explains why the BaPa continues to “pursue the return of the province of Sulu into the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region,” he said.
Their primary agenda, he said, is to sustain and further strengthen the self-governance of the Bangsamoro. “That’s why we’re pursuing the entrenchment of the Bangsamoro in the 1987 Constitution,” he said.
Like Sinarimbo, Sema noted that with the Bangsamoro Organic Law as the statutory basis for the existence of the BARMM, “at any time, Congress can choose to continue or even delete its existence under Philippine laws.”
Sema said strengthening self-governance means improving fiscal autonomy.
He spoke of “participatory legislation,” and that there is a Public Petitions bill that is now on second reading. “It will be first in the history of autonomous regions (that we will have this) Public Petitions Law in the Bangsamoro,” a proposed law similar to the Scottish Parliament “wherein the people can freely petition their government for anything they would want to happen in accordance with their needs.”
He said they will definitely continue peace building, sustain the gains of the peace process, continue to pursue whatever remains unimplemented under the 1996 Final Peace Agreement “and we will join our brothers in the MILF in pursuing also the unimplemented portions of the Comprehensive Agreement and the Bangsamoro.”
Regional policing under the 1996 GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement and the 2014 GPH-MILF CAB have remained unimplemented because the law in the defunct ARMM and in the current BARMM do not allow it.
Sema noted that in settling rido (clan feuds), nobody gets jailed. He said the root cause of the rido may be solved but the criminal component is not addressed.
“And I think that is what we are going to pursue if we are given a chance again to come back at the parliament.”
He spoke of labor and employment and how an investment code should have been passed first to provide for employment opportunities.
“If the MNLF or Bangsamoro Party will be given a chance to come back sa parliament, we will advocate for real and practicable regional minimum wage,” he said.
Like other poltical parties, BaPa will pursue improving the quality of education in the Bangsamoro; better accessible and responsible healthcare;
modernization of agriculture and stabilize food security; ensure women, youth and minority empowerment; environmental protection and climate resilience; cultural preservation and Islamic governance.
United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP)
The UBJP sent Yul Adil V. Olaya, one of its nominees for settler communities representative, to represent the party at the forum.
Olaya said presenting the UBJP platform is a heavy task given that he was representing UBJP President Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim.
The UPBJP was established in 2014 to transition the MILF from an armed revolutionary organization into a social movement.
For the UBJP, Olaya said, “Justice and Peace” is not a rhetoric, idea, theory but refers to real lives, lives of the Bangsamoro who have long been marginalized, discriminated, deprived, neglected.
Olaya said he has been working in the grassroots communities and in evacuation centers where he learned about stories of the “multi-layered injustices” suffered by the Bangsamoro, and prefers to stay at the grassroots, but has been asked by the MILF leadership to be among the sectoral representatives of the UBJP.
He said the UBJP story is “not a separate story … not a separate narrative from the Bangsamoro people.”
Establishing the UBJP, he said, is “very symbolic” because it “actually tells the world that the MILF is now engaging in a political reform, in a political struggle. Hindi na lamang armed struggle, kundi nag-transition na po ito into a political struggle.”
The mission of the UBJP, Olaya stressed, is to serve the Bangsamoro people, to stand for unity and justice and for the improvement and development of the Bangsamoro people through a “genuine principled political party.”
UBJP, he said, strives to achieve the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people and uphold the CAB.
He noted that all political parties in the BARMM always refer to the CAB because it “embodies the aspirations of the Bangsamoro people for a meaningful autonomy.”
“UBJP is a lead political party, a champion of really ensuring that we uphold that. We will ensure that we will achieve all the agreements (under) CAB. We will also uphold the Bangsamoro right to self-determination,” Olaya said.
He said the Bangsamoro has autonomy but in the governance of the region, “hindi pa tayo nakakakalas sa influence and control ng Malacanang, ng Metro Manila” (we haven’t been unshackled from the influence and control of Malacanang, of Metro Manila).
This is a continuing struggle, he said.
On moral governance espoused by Ebrahim, Olaya said, differentiated good governance from moral governance.
In Filipino, he explained that good governance means that if you purchase something for P1,000 and you have a receipt bearing the same amount, you can liquidate that amount because of the receipt. “So good governance yun kasi sumunod ka sa regulation. Pero hindi pinag-uusapan sa good governance kung paano mo kinuha ang resibo?” (you followed the regulation. But good governance does not talk about how you got the receipt).
He said you can show a receipt for P1,000 even if you made no purchase, and liquidate it. But in moral governance, the essence is faith. If the purchase is P1,000 worth of product and there is a receipt for P1,000, that receipt should be real.
UBJP’s principles and faith are “not for sale,” he stressed.
“The party will not serve special interest groups, oligarchs, or dynasties looking for power and profits,” he said.
“Our vision of success is a united Bangsamoro leading in justice and peace. So, that’s UBJP, One Bangsamoro, One Party, One Future.”
MindaNews invited five Regional Parliamentary Political Parties (RPPPs) for this first forum: the four who sent their representatives, and the Bangsamoro Grand Coalition (BGC) whose letter to the Secretary-General went unanswered.
MindaNews will feature the other parties soon.
Thirteen political parties are listed on the Sept. 14, 2026 ballot for the voters to choose one.
Please watch out for the first edition of “Bangsamoro Beyond the Transition” podcast, featuring the May 23 forum. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
