Palace exec shoots down ‘No-el’ calls in BARMM

IN SESSION Members of the interim Bangsamoro parliament prepare to hold a session in this photo in February. The regional legislature has already completed preparations to ensure that the first regular elections in 2025 will push through. —BANGSAMORO TRANSITION AUTHORITY INFORMATION AND PUBLICATION OFFICE

COTABATO CITY — Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. has doused cold water on renewed calls for extending, yet again, the life of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), which means a “no election” or “No-el” scenario for the leadership of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2025.

Galvez said that consistent with the directive of President Marcos, the first parliamentary elections in the BARMM will push through as scheduled next year.

“The directive of the President is very, very firm that we will have an election in 2025,” Galvez pointed out.

He was referring to Mr. Marcos’ speech during the inaugural session of the interim Bangsamoro parliament in September 2022 when he told the regional legislators to pass the necessary measures to ensure the holding of the first regular elections in 2025.

The BTA, the interim government of the BARMM, was created in 2019, right after its charter, the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), was ratified in a plebiscite. Congress extended its institutional life by another three years, or up to June 30, 2025, when the first set of elected parliament members is expected to have assumed office.

Importance

The BOL, in turn, was legislated based on the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro that was signed by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014, ending over four decades of Moro rebellion.

“We have to prepare for BARMM elections because it is important to have legitimacy and accountability in regional governance,” explained Galvez, who was here for a grand iftar (breaking of the fast) with BARMM and MILF leaders on Wednesday.

“So, the election will come,” Galvez said, adding that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will hold a special registration of voters in Camp Darapanan, the MILF’s main administrative base in Sultan Kudarat town, Maguindanao del Norte.

Renewed calls for a second three-year extension of the BTA were voiced by several civil society organizations in Mindanao, purportedly to further build the gains of peace.

“We advocate for an extension that will allow the Bangsamoro government the time it needs to institutionalize the reforms and infrastructures of peace,” said Cotabato City Mayor Mohammad Ali Matabalao, who ran and won office in 2022 as a candidate of the MILF’s United Bangsamoro Justice Party.

But Galvez said the six-year transition period “was more than enough” to prepare the region for its first parliamentary polls.

The interim parliament had actually completed the preparations for the 2025 political exercise, having legislated the Bangsamoro Electoral Code and the creation of 32 parliamentary districts throughout the region.

Of the 80 seats in the BARMM parliament, 40 are to be filled by party representatives, 32 by district representatives and eight sectoral representatives. The Bangsamoro region comprises six provinces, three cities, 116 municipalities and 2,590 barangays, and is home to over four million residents. —WITH A REPORT FROM TAHER SOLAIMAN