COTABATO CITY—More than three years after voting to become part of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), residents of 63 villages in six towns of Cotabato province can now look forward to the day that they formally belong to a particular locality.
On Tuesday, the BARMM’s government of the day, led by interim Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, filed eight bills before the parliament to organize the villages into eight municipalities.
Up to this day, the 63 villages are collectively referred to as the BARMM’s “special geographic area.” Voters there chose to be part of the autonomous region during the Feb. 6, 2019, plebiscite to ratify the Bangsamoro Organic Law.
In the 2019 midterm polls, they still voted for local officials in their respective mother towns of Aleosan, Carmen, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pikit and Pigcawayan.
But in the 2022 general elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) barred them from casting their votes for local officials as they were no longer part of the political constituency of the six towns. This disenfranchised close to 100,000 voters.
The Cotabato provincial government turned over supervision of the 63 villages to the BARMM in November 2019. However, it took until December 2020 for the Department of the Interior and Local Government to transfer supervision of these villages and of Cotabato City, which also voted to be part of the BARMM.
Plebiscite
The proposed municipalities would be named Pahamudin, Kadayangan, Kabalukan, Northern Kabacan, Kapalawan, Malmar, Tugunan and Ligawasan.Once passed by parliament, the eight measures creating the new towns will be subjected to a plebiscite in the respective proposed municipalities, to be conducted and supervised by the Comelec through the Bangsamoro Electoral Office should the BARMM’s electoral code is firmed up soon.
When ratified in a plebiscite, the proposed measures provide that the chief minister will appoint the first mayor, vice mayor and eight members of the Sangguniang Bayan of the new municipalities.
The Bangsamoro government will also appropriate and provide financial assistance for the administration and operation of the new municipalities.
Last September, member of parliament Baintan Adil-Ampatuan filed a measure seeking to organize the 63 villages into the Hashim Salamat municipality in honor of the late Moro revolutionary.
In all, the 63 villages comprise some 215,433 people, based on the 2020 census.