Bill postponing BARMM polls to May 2025 up for Duterte’s signature

The Bangsamoro Government Center in Cotabato City. (Photo from the Facebook page of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslm Mindanao)

MANILA, Philippines — A bill postponing the first regular elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) for three years is now only awaiting President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature in order to become a law.

This developed as the Senate ratified on Monday the bicameral conference committee report on the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill No. 2214 and House Bill No. 10121.

The bills seek to reset the holding of the first BARMM regular polls from May 2022 to May 2025 by amending the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) of 2018.

The House of Representatives ratified the bicam report last September 21.

Senator Francis Tolentino, a sponsor of the bill in the Senate, said the reconciled version will give the President “the authority to appoint competently those who will continue to lead and fix the transition period in the BARMM.”

Under the reconciled version, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) shall continue as the interim government in the Bangsamoro Region.

The President may appoint the 80 new interim members of the BTA who shall serve up to June 30, 2025, or until their successors shall have been elected and qualified, according to the reconciled bill.

“The reconciled provision will expedite the rollout of development and recovery efforts in the Region through the effective leadership of competent, accountable, and reliable officials in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority,” Tolentino explained.

According to Tolentino, further extending the BTA is “a testament to the government’s continued efforts to maintain peace and push for inclusive growth in the BARMM region.”

He also stressed the need to extend the BARMM transition period for the implementation of political and normalization efforts embodied in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) since the global pandemic posed “significant challenges” to the execution of the Bangsamoro government’s priority programs and projects.

“Our brothers and sisters in the BARMM Region should not wait until June 2022 to have the leaders they truly deserve,” Tolentino added.

While there has been “considerable” effort on the part of the BTA to fulfill some of its mandates under the BOL, Tolentino underscored that “much work is yet to be done” to achieve long and lasting peace and progress in the region.