COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Up to 46 newly-elected members of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament on Wednesday, October 14, formed a bloc and agreed to cooperate in setting a peace and development roadmap they are to pursue during their five-year term as regional lawmakers.
The majority coalition group, comprised of 46 members of the parliament elected during the September 14 elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, was organized during their meeting in Davao City on Wednesday, attended by senior officials of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party led by its president, Abdulraof Macacua.
Macacua’s tenure as BARMM’s interim chief minister, which started in March 2025, based on an appointment by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., shall last until October 30. He was elected as representative of a parliamentary district covering barangays in Cotabato City and Maguindanao del Norte province during last month’s first-ever regional polls in BARMM.
BARMM’s local government minister, Jordan Bayam, had told reporters that the regional lawmakers who converged in Davao City had agreed to bond together and set a common peace and development framework needed to boost the autonomous region’s socio-economic growth and foster peace among its Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro communities.
Officials of different ministries under the Bangsamoro government had separately told reporters that the coalition, which has more than 30 representatives from the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, augurs well with the wishes of various sectors in BARMM’s five provinces and three cities for Macacua to get nominated, by colleagues in the parliament, as chief minister of the region’s now regular, duly-mandated law-making body.
Macacua, in a message during their activity in Davao City, pointed out that all 46 of them had signed a compact, the BARMM Government Coalition Document, binding signatories to stand as one solid group in the regional parliament.
“This coalition represents various political parties and ethno-linguistic groups and organizations that have come together to govern (the BARMM) under a shared vision of peace and prosperity for all residents in the Bangsamoro region. We have agreed further that this majority bloc will form the Government of the Day in the Bangsamoro region,” Macacua said.
Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., a senior official of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo Party, was among the local executives who participated in Monday’s activity of the 46 parliament members in Davao City.
“We support this bloc,” Adiong said.