BARMM vows to hasten passage of priority codes

FILE PHOTO: The Bangsamoro Transition Authority holds its session at the new plenary hall located inside the Bangsamoro Government Center in Cotabato City. —SHEILA MAE DELA CRUZ

COTABATO CITY—Leaders of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) vowed to pass the remaining priority codes that the transition government had been mandated to enact before the end of its term in June 2025. Lawyer Omar Yasser Sema, BTA deputy speaker, said they could set aside all other proposed measures in the current BTA as long as the remaining priority bills would be delivered in time for the first election in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). To date, the BTA Parliament has already passed the administrative, civil service, education and electoral codes of the region. Still pending are the local governance, revenue and indigenous peoples’ rights codes, Sema said. —EDWIN O. FERNANDEZ