More mayors call for BARMM polls postponement

COTABATO CITY — More local executives in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have joined forces with groups advocating for the postponement of next year's first BARMM regional parliamentary elections to 2026.

Radio reports in Central Mindanao cities on Thursday, November 14 stated that 10 of the 12 mayors in Basilan signed on Tuesday, November 13, a manifesto favoring the move, just a day after their governor, Hadjiman Salliman, released his separate written petition for it.

Among the ten mayors in Basilan who signed the manifesto is Roderick Furigay, the mayor of the vote-rich Lamitan City covering 45 barangays with mixed Muslim and Christian residents.

In their separate statements, the Basilan mayors and Salliman pointed out that they support the Senate Bill 2864 and House Bill 11034, introduced by Senate President Francis Escudero and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, respectively, as enabling measures to legitimize the reset of the 2025 BARMM elections to 2026.

The concerted move by the Basilan local executives was preceded by the release on Sunday, November 10, by 11 of the 12 mayors in Maguindanao del Norte, led by Ramil Dilangalen of Northern Kabuntalan, of the same appeal, citing that the postponement of the elections will give the BARMM government enough time to prepare for such an exercise.

The sectors seeking the delay by one year of the BARMM elections had also asserted that the 80-seat regional parliament needed time to reconfigure the parliamentary districts in the autonomous region after the Supreme Court had removed Sulu province from its core territory as petitioned by provincial officials, among them Gov. Hadji Abdusakur Tan.