Old guards to vie for top BARMM posts vs MILF execs in 2025

TOP SUPPORTERS Leaders of the Bangsamoro Grand Coalition, an alliance of four major regional political parties in Bangsamoro, endorse Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan (top photo) as their bet for the Bangsamoro chief minister in a gathering in Sulu on Saturday. In Basilan on Thursday, Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, head of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, greets the crowd in Lamitan City, during an assembly attended by some 5,000 supporters. —photos from BGC and UBJP

COTABATO CITY, BARMM, Philippines — With barely a year before the elections in May 2025, the political pot in the Bangsamoro region has started to roil, with traditional powerful clans forming its own alliance to vie for parliament seats against the newly formed party composed mostly of leaders of the former rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The Bangsamoro Grand Coalition (BGC), composed of several parties of ruling political clans in different provinces in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), endorsed Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan as the candidate for the post of Bangsamoro chief minister in the expanded autonomous region’s first elections next year.

The endorsement was made during a gathering of the coalition’s political leaders at the Sultan Jamalul Kiram Elementary School Grandstand in Maimbung town, Sulu province, on Saturday.

READ: BARMM parties vow peaceful regional polls

This means that Tan would challenge the standard-bearer of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the party of MILF, which currently has the upper hand in running the BARMM, created in 2019 as a result of the peace deal between the former Moro rebel group and the government.

The gathering in Sulu came three days after UBJP, which was organized as means for MILF to participate in democratic politics, held its first general assembly in Basilan province on Thursday, attended by about 5,000 people led by Bangsamoro interim Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim.

UBJP, which is set to field candidates for seats in the 80-member Bangsamoro parliament in 2025, already expected it would go against entrenched political clans and families in the region, which could mean Tan challenging Ebrahim for the top minister’s post.

TOP SUPPORTERS Leaders of the Bangsamoro Grand Coalition, an alliance of four major regional political parties in Bangsamoro, endorse Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan (top photo) as their bet for the Bangsamoro chief minister in a gathering in Sulu on Saturday. In Basilan on Thursday, Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, head of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, greets the crowd in Lamitan City, during an assembly attended by some 5,000 supporters. —photos from BGC and UBJP

Leadership matters

“This decision was reached after consultations with stakeholders, constituents, officers and leadership of the four political parties comprising the BGC,” said a statement released on Saturday by BGC, a coalition formed in Makati City only last April 24.

The coalition is composed of the Salaam political party led by Tan; Al-Ittihad Party led by former Sultan Kudarat Gov. Suharto Mangudadatu, currently the director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority; the Bangsamoro Peoples Party led by Basilan lone Rep. Mujiv Hataman; and the Serbisyong Inklusibo-Alyansang Progresibo led by Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mohammad Khalid “Mujam” Raki-in Adiong, son of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., who was also in the gathering.

Tan’s record as Sulu governor was a “testament to good governance and its positive impact on the lives of our people,” noting that it was through the governor’s leadership that the presence of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group in the province was eliminated, BGC said.

“A major obstacle to development was lifted and now, Sulu is emerging as a model of governance and resilience. This is the same leadership that Tan will bring to our regional government,” said the statement.

Tan must first seek a seat in the Bangsamoro parliament as a district representative representing Sulu before he could seek the chief minister’s office during the maiden session of the first elected members of the parliament in June 2025.

Earlier, Mangudadatu, husband of Maguindanao del Sur Gov. Bai Mariam Mangudadatu, said he was also eyeing the chief minister’s post once elected as a member of the Bangsamoro parliament next year. But his party at Saturday’s meeting was among those who supported Tan.

Transition stalwarts

Ebrahim and the 79 current members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority were appointed by Malacañang to run the transition government of the BARMM before they run for regional seats alongside the country’s midterm elections next year.

It will be the first time for the former Moro rebels, who signed the peace deal with the government in 2014 that later paved the way for the creation of the BARMM, to participate and run for elections.

MILF came into being in 1977 after its founder, Hashim Salamat, broke away from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founded by Nur Misuari. After Misuari signed a peace deal with the Ramos administration in 1996, he was installed governor of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the predecessor of the BARMM.

The Bangsamoro Party, another emerging regional party headed by Muslimin Sema, chair of an MNLF faction, also eyes an alliance with UBJP or any other political group ahead of next year’s elections.

Filing of certificates of candidacy for the BARMM’s first parliament elections will still be in October this year, or about four months before the May 2025 polls. —with reports from Julie Alipala