GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 14 November) – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)-led interim Bangsamoro government is ready for either an election or no election (no-el) scenario next year, an official said.
Mohd Asnin Pendatun, Cabinet secretary and spokesperson of the Bangsamoro government, said in a press conference livestreamed over Facebook on Thursday that while they are not against the proposal to postpone the historic Bangsamoro parliamentary elections in May 2025, they are ready to participate in the first regional polls in case it pushes through.
Senate President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero filed on Monday a bill seeking to defer the parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) from May 12, 2025 to May 11, 2026, in view of the recent Supreme Court ruling excluding Sulu from the regional group.
Escudero filed the measure to allow the region to reconfigure its jurisdictions as well as reallocate the seats of its 80-member parliament.
House Speaker Martin Romuldez followed with a similar measure in the House of Representatives.
Pendatun said they will respect the decision of the legislature.
“We will leave it to the sound discretion of Congress. They have the power to reset the elections,” he told Brigada News FM Cotabato.
Still, Pendatun said that Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim is encouraging voters to exercise their democratic rights should the May 12, 2025 elections will push through as scheduled.
The Bangsamoro government is working to help make the first parliamentary elections clean, honest and peaceful, Pendatun said.
Member of Parliament Don Arbison Loong is likewise supporting the postponement of the first parliamentary polls in the BARMM.
“The resetting is necessary to prevent irreparable harm to the vested rights of the people of Sulu, their right of suffrage and representation,” said Loong, a native of Sulu.
The Supreme Court voted unanimously last September to exclude Sulu from the BARMM as the No votes won in the province during the plebiscite for the autonomous region.
Loong said “there is a need to amend the redistricting law to account for the exclusion of Sulu” and yet there are pending motions for reconsideration on the High Tribunal’s decision on Sulu.
“If the elections continue in 2025 without Sulu voting and the Supreme Court decides to reinclude Sulu as still part of the Bangsamoro, then the more than 433,000 registered voters of Sulu will be disenfranchised,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, several municipal mayors of Maguindanao del Norte also called for the resetting of the parliamentary elections to 2026, urging the national government to first resolve the issue on the exclusion of Sulu from BARMM.
The mayors who signed a position paper include those from Northern Kabuntalan, Parang, Sultan Mastura, Barrira, Buldon, Datu Blah Sinsuat, Mother Kabuntalan, Upi, and Matanog.
The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the interim body that governs the BARMM, earlier passed a resolution seeking the postponement of the regional polls next year to 2028.
The MILF, which controls the BTA with 41 seats, is fielding candidates in the historic parliamentary elections next year through its political party, the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP).
The no-el scenario in the May 12, 2025 parliamentary elections has generated a backlash, with a coalition of 35 civil society organizations in Mindanao rejecting the proposals to reset the elections.
In a resolution issued last Saturday, the MILF noted that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has repeatedly stated that the parliamentary elections will be conducted in May 2025, simultaneous with the midterm national and local elections.
The first Bangsamoro parliamentary elections were originally scheduled in May 2022, but former President Rodrigo Duterte signed a law resetting it to May 2025.
Based on data from the Bangsamoro Electoral Office, 109 candidates are running for the 25 parliamentary district seats (should have been 32 seats had the Supreme Court not excluded Sulu from BARMM). Forty seats are allotted to the party system, and eight from sectoral groups.
The UBJP’s first nominee is Ebrahim, followed by Datucan “Mohagher Iqbal” Abas, Ali B. Solaiman, Eduard Guerra and Ibrahim Ali. It is also fielding candidates in the parliamentary district seats.
Commission on Elections Chair George Garcia has said that unlike those running in the parliamentary districts, sectoral group representatives will not be elected in the 2025 polls.
The different sectoral groups would select in assemblies their representatives to the parliament, he added.
A political party needs to secure at least 4% of the total valid votes cast to qualify for a party seat in the Bangsamoro parliament, according to the Bangsamoro Electoral Code. (Bong S. Sarmiento with reports from Richel V. Umel / MindaNews)
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