The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will hold its first ever elections for its 80-man Parliament on Oct. 13 this year. Postponed not just once but three times in the past, the BARMM Parliament Elections (BPE) will finally get off from its launching pad, so to speak. Instead of being held along with the national and local elections (NLE) this May 12, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) signed Republic Act (RA) 12123 that approved the BPE to be held five months later on stand-alone basis.
The election and eventual installation into office of the members of the BARMM Parliament will replace the existing Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA). The members of the BTA come from and represent the six provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur and Sulu under the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) to end the long drawn-out secessionist war in Mindanao. The FAB subsequently led to the enactment by the 17th Congress of RA 11054, or the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), in July 2018.
In September 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) upheld the validity of the BOL. But the same SC decision declared that Sulu will no longer be part of BARMM, after a majority of residents rejected in a plebiscite in 2019 the inclusion of their province. The unintended consequence of the SC ruling, however, removed the seven districts of Sulu out of the BARMM.
Thus, PBBM certified to the 19th Congress as an urgent administration bill in January this year seeking to postpone anew the BPE until such time the BTA decides how to re-allocate the seven districts among the remaining five provinces of the BARMM. The exclusion of Sulu from the BARMM, an unresolved petition questioning the constitutionality of the BTA-approved Bangsamoro Electoral Code of 2023 and a request from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for additional time to prepare for the polls were among the reasons for the postponement of the elections. And, as we say, the rest is history.
The holding of the BPE will be conducted using the same automated election system for the May 12 NLE, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia announced at our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last week. But newly appointed Comelec Commissioner Nilo Pipo is worried that this will mean the Comelec will be conducting three elections this year. A career official who rose through the ranks, Pipo swore this is the first time in recent history that the Comelec will hold three separate and distinct electoral exercises only months apart within one year. These are the NLE in May, the BPE in October and the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) in December this year.
“We are having a super election year,” Comelec Commissioner Pipo quipped.
Given this tight schedule of three elections, Pipo suggested to the Comelec chairman that the Comelec may need to extend the continuing registration period, especially for new voters in the age group of 15-year-olds qualified to join the BSKE. Designated as vice chairman of the poll body tasked to supervise the BARMM elections, Pipo fears the time constraints in between these elections will likely be too short for the Comelec.
Garcia agreed the Comelec may need to extend the original 10-day registration period for new voters in the BSKE to add at least five more days to enable more age-qualified Filipino youths to participate. Although the BPE was reset to a later date, the Comelec chief sees no need to conduct a continuing voters’ registration in BARMM.
Meanwhile, Garcia is scheduled to fly this week to Cotabato City, an independent component city of the BARMM. Also serving as the permanent seat of the BARMM government, the Comelec Chairman will join the ceremonial signing of the “Peace Covenant” among the candidates and other stakeholders in the coming May 12 national and local elections in the BARMM.
Given the history of election-related violence, Garcia conceded there are still candidates whom he calls “pasaway.” Roughly translated, he refers to stubborn candidates who still believe in guns, goons and gold to win the elections. Thus, Garcia suggested that all the signatories to the “Peace Covenant” will swear on the Islamic bible Quran as their bond of commitment to ensure the holding of orderly, peaceful elections.
Garcia hopes there will be less “rido,” or the cycle of violence of clan wars among Muslims, especially on political rivalries in the BARMM with the ban on political dynasty for all BPE candidates. In particular, he cited Article III, Section 9 (d) of the Bangsamoro Election Code (BEC) which reads: “…Nominees submitted by the Regional Political Parties (RPP) shall not be related to each other within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity.”
According to the Comelec, covered by this BEC ban are the 109 aspirants who have filed their candidacies for district representative seats up for grabs in the BPE. Actually, the ban on political dynasty was first adopted in the SK elections in October 2023. Section 10 of RA 10742 or the Sangguniang Kabataan Act of 2015 mandates that SK candidates “must not be related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any incumbent elected national official or to any incumbent elected regional, provincial, city, municipal or barangay official, in the locality where he or she seeks to be elected.”
This means that anyone aged 18 to 24 might be disqualified as an SK candidate if any of his parents, siblings or grandparents, as well as his or her spouse, parents and siblings, is an incumbent elected government official.
Garcia also welcomed the provision under Section 4 of the BEC that provided for “None Of The Above,” or NOTA, at the end of all names of the BPE candidates included in the ballot. “This a good model,” the Comelec chief conceded.
Definitely, NOTA is a win for the voters and worthy of being replicated in our country’s elections. This is the real power of choice.