Local groups in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) have urged the government to proceed with the region’s parliamentary elections on May 12, 2025, following the Supreme Court’s (SC) ruling in September that Sulu is not part of the region.

The high tribunal ruled on Sept. 9 that Sulu is not part of BARMM due to its rejection of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (Republic Act 11054) during a plebiscite in 2019. The justices, however, affirmed the constitutionality of the law.

The Sulu exclusion prompted Senate President Chiz Escudero to file Senate Bill 2862, seeking to defer the parliamentary elections to May 11, 2026, to “allow the region to reconfigure its jurisdictions as well as reallocate the seats of its 80-member parliament following the High Court’s ruling cutting off Sulu from the BARMM.”

For the Coalition for Social Accountability and Transparency, a group of 35 civil society, academic, and religious groups in BARMM and the Zamboanga Peninsula, the SC decision is not enough reason to postpone the polls.

Hindi naman po nakakasagabal ‘yong Sulu,” Nelson Mukarram, one of the coalition’s co-convenors and leader of Sulu-based civil society group Kapatut Bangsa Sug said at a press conference on Nov. 12 at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati.

’Yong kailangan sa parliamentary members, 80; makukuha naman po ‘yon sa ibang province.”

Voters in BARMM will elect 80 parliamentary members, with 40 seats allocated for party-affiliated representatives, 32 for district representatives, and eight for sectoral representatives. Sulu was allocated seven seats, which will now be redistributed to other provinces.

Since 2019, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) has served as an interim government, with more than half of its members nominated by the erstwhile rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The first parliamentary elections were originally slated for May 9, 2022, but former president Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 11593 in 2021, which moved the polls to 2025.

The MILF has expressed support for proceeding with next year’s BARMM elections. The group’s political arm, the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, has already enlisted as one of the seven participating political parties in the polls.

“The MILF central committee hereby earnestly (appeals) for the 2025 parliamentary elections in the BARMM to proceed as scheduled, consistent with the call of His Excellency, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in numerous speeches referring to the elections in the region,” the MILF said in a resolution issued on Nov. 7.

Marcos, in his third State of the Nation Address in July, said BARMM “appears primed and ready for its first regular elections” as the parliament enacted laws necessary for its autonomy and development, including election, administrative, and local government codes.

For the coalition’s lead convenor, Rashid Bangcolongan of the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society, proceeding with the polls would ensure that parliamentary members legitimately represent the people of BARMM.

“When we speak of the appointment, these people who are sitting in the government have to serve who appointed [them], not the people,” Bangcolongan said. “Nakikita natin ngayon sa nangyayari. They already have almost six years na.”

Amenodin Cali, director of the Kalimudan sa Ranao Foundation, added that longstanding problems in the region would be resolved much faster if BARMM voters elect their leaders next year.

“The more na makakamit ang legitimate representation sa BARMM, the more na mas may legitimacy ‘yong pag-stop, pag-curb ng criminalities and all these conflicts,” he said.

Huwag natin i-sabotage, i-hostage ‘yong aspirations of the people…The people in the BARMM deserve peace and deserve legitimate leaders,” he added.

Increased violence

The CSAT also argued that deferring the BARMM elections to 2026 would further inspire violence in a region already enmeshed with it.

“If a postponement will happen, and there’s a group who are just waiting for the perfect time to push for their agenda and have been posing threat regardless of what is in the establishment of the government, maca-capitalize itong issue na ito,” Khuzaima Maranda, a co-convenor from the Lanao del Sur-based Thuma Ko Kapagingud Service Organization, said.

But whether or not the elections take place in 2025 or 2026, the reality is communal violence in the BARMM is on the rise.

The non-governmental group Council for Climate and Conflict Action (CCCA) warned in August that increased tensions over politics and land ownership would cause “renewed suffering” as the polls draw near.

“Years after the conclusion of peace negotiations and the creation of BARMM, the path to lasting peace has been obstructed again, bringing renewed suffering, uncertainty and insecurity, especially among women and children,” the CCCA said. “These cracks are expected to widen further as the first regional elections descend upon the region in 2025.”

“Our evidence-based analysis reveals complex dynamics that have led to the resurgence of violence, despite the decline in violence after the Marawi siege in 2017, the implementation of martial law and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic,” it added.

Conflict Alert, a group that independently monitors conflicts in the region, found that violent encounters rose during the 2022 national elections and the 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. Among the culprits are the emergence of a shadow economy, the proliferation of illegal drugs, and gun-for-hire schemes, as well as the persistence of clan feuds.

Maguindanao, the group added, “will experience the worst” when the 2025 campaign begins in earnest, but all provinces “will witness violence.” 

Discontentment

Edchamcy Abelardo, a co-convenor from Maguindanao who represents the group Indigenous Peoples Young Professionals, floated one other ramification of delaying the BARMM elections: a feeling of discontentment among the non-Moro indigenous peoples (NMIPs).

“I think prolonging or resetting the election will also add more feelings, especially in our situation that we are the minorities within the minority in the Bangsamoro,” he said.

Abelardo added that NMIPs’ “distrust of government” will only be reinforced with this proposed deferment.

NMIPs make up only 2% of the total population in BARMM, a region dominated by the Moros, according to a 2013 survey. Among the distinct minority groups residing there are the Tedurays, Lambangians, Dulangan Manobos, Higaonon, and 17 other ethnic affiliations, each with fewer than 100 members.

Frustration among the NMIPs toward the BTA stems from their non-inclusion in the proposed Indigenous People’s Code. Timuay Labi Leticio Datuwata, supreme leader of the group Teduray-Lambangian Timuay Justice and Governance, lamented in May that classifying them under the generalized term Indigenous Cultural Communities, rather than the distinct NMIPs would “weaken their rights.”

“The BOL categorizes indigenous peoples in the BARMM as ‘non-Moro indigenous peoples’ because we are a minority within a minority group, and we have a distinct identity and struggle that we have continuously asserted,” Datuwata underscored in a statement.

“NMIPs will become more marginalized if they are classified as another group under ‘Indigenous Peoples’ only and not as a distinct NMIP identity,” he added.

The issue, Abelardo said, has raised the necessity of holding the BARMM elections as soon as possible.

“Having a strong government is not necessarily giving more power to those powerful but to address the injustices to minorities. And we should have a government that does not create another layer of conflict, especially on the NMIP communities,” he said.

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