COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 19 May) – The United Bangsamoro Justice Party, the political party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is now preparing for the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao scheduled on October 13 this year, BARMM Interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua said in a press briefing Friday.

Macacua said they are ready to face the BARMM Grand Coalition (BGC), which, he said, they are not taking lightly despite their victories in Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and Tawi-Tawi, and in Cotabato City during the May 12 elections.

“Small and large groups pose a threat to the party because you can’t see the depth of that threat. However, from what I see, although there’s still a slight threat, it’s no longer very significant,” he said.

BGC was formed by Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan, Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal “Bombit” Alonto Adiong Jr., Maguindanao del Sur Governor Bai Mariam Sangki-Mangudadatu and her husband and then-TESDA director-general Suharto “Teng” Mangudadatu, and Basilan Congressman Mujiv Hataman.

Bai Mariam and her husband ran as governors of Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte, respectively. Both of them lost.

Tan had announced his bid to become the chief minister. However, voting unanimously, the Supreme Court dismissed petitions to declare the creation of BARMM as unconstitutional but ruled to remove Sulu from the region on the basis that it voted no during the 2019 plebiscite.

One of the petitions was filed in 2018 by Tan’s own son and namesake, Abdusakur Tan II, long before the elder Tan had aspired to become BARMM chief minister. (Ferdinandh B. Cabrera/MindaNews)