DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 30 Oct) — Appointed members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) are to continue to serve beyond October 30 “until new officials are duly elected or appointed,” a press statement from the Office of the President (OP) said.
Since no election took place on October 13, the OP said “the BTA shall continue to exercise full powers and authority in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) during the extended transition period to ensure “continuity of governance, legal stability, and an orderly transition in the Bangsamoro.”
This is the third time the transition period has been extended.
Initially, the transition period was from February 2019 to June 30, 2022 but what would have been the 1st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) on May 9, 2022 was reset to May 12, 2025, effectively extending the transition period to June 30, 2025.
RA 12123, passed February 19 this year, again reset the election to October 13, thus extending the transition period to October 30, when the first elected Members of Parliament (MP) were supposed to have assumed their posts.
But the Oct. 13 election has been postponed anew, to a date not later than March 31, 2026 after the Supreme Court declared the districting laws — Bangsamoro Autonomy Acts 58 and 77 — unconstitutional.
Section 2 of RA 12123 provides that during the extension of the transition period, the BTA continues as the interim government “unless such interim members are replaced by the President or their tenure is shortened by their election to a different office.”
The same section states that the interim members of the BTA “shall serve until their successors shall have been elected and qualified in an automated election.”
The September 30 Supreme Court decision that declared BAA 58 and 77 unconstitutional directed the BTA to “immediately undertake by October 30, 2025 at the latest” the passage of a new law for the 32 parliamentary district seats in the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) “in strict compliance with the priorities and requirements provided to the Bangsamoro Organic Law, as well as the criteria laid down in this decision.”
The Court also urged Congress to “promptly enact a law that would reschedule the BARMM Parliamentary Elections … as much as practicable, not later than March 31, 2026 to ensure adequate preparations for the latter” and because there is another election scheduled next year, on November 2, 2026,for Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan.
No new law has been passed as of October 30 but three districting bills have been filed.
The Bangsamoro Parliament, which meets Mondays to Thursdays on the third and fourth week of each month, has approved a revised calendar and will resume sessions on November 10 instead of 17, to deliberate on priority measures, including the districting bill.
The Supreme Court had said that immediately after the passage of the new districting law, the Comelec is directed to “proceed with its preparations and conduct the elections in compliance (with Section 5 of the Voter’s Registration Act) not later than March 31, 2026.”
Section 5 of the Voters’ Registration Act provides that “no territory comprising an election precinct shall be altered or a new precinct be established at the start of the election period” and “splitting of an original precinct or merger of two or more original precincts shall not be allowed without redrawing the precinct map/s one hundred twenty (120) days before election day.”
BAA 77 violated this 120-day rule, which was among the reasons why it was declared unconstitutional.
A hundred and twenty days before the March 31, 2026 is November 30, 2025. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
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