This was reported by the Electoral Commission at the end of the presentation of the lists for the May elections. The documents were presented in a climate of “peace” and free of irregularities. There are 25 seats to be assigned. But the shadow of a possible postponement persists after the proposals presented in recent days by the presidents of the Senate and the House.
Manila () – There are 109 candidates for a seat in the parliamentary districts, representing eight political parties, who have completed the process of submitting the Certificates of Candidacy (Coc) and Certificates of Acceptance of Nominations (CAN) for the Elections Bangsamoro Parliamentarians (BPE) of 2025. This was reported yesterday by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), according to which the documentation for the vote was deposited between 6 and on November 9 in a climate “of peace” and free of irregularities, as noted by the president of the Comelec, George García, who said he was “satisfied.”
According to official records, 41 candidates appeared for the Lanao del Sur parliamentary district, including 15 in Maguindanao del Norte and Sur, 14 in Basilan, 10 in Tawi-Tawi, 9 in Cotabato City and 5 in the Special Geographic Zone (SGA) of Cotabato. At the party level, eight have presented the necessary documentation and the list of candidates, as well as the declaration of intention to participate in the parliamentary elections (Mip-Pe).
García also described the number of candidates as satisfactory, despite the fact that in the recent past there were repeated requests for the elections to be postponed in a context in which critical elements were not lacking. “The total number of candidates – comments the official – is quite high if we consider that the seats to be allocated in Parliament are only 25 and that there is the possibility of a postponement and redefinition.”
The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) recently passed Resolution No. 641, asking the House of Representatives and the Senate to extend the transition period from 2025 to 2028. In response, Philippine Senate President Francis Escudero , and the Speaker of the House, Martin Romualdez, presented their respective bills to postpone the vote (BPE) until May 11, 2026.
In February 2019, then-President Rodrigo Duterte had entrusted the government of the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to Al Hajj Murad Ebrahim, leader of the MILF, who took over as acting chief minister. From that moment on, the rebels – who for decades have waged a bloody battle for autonomy, with 150,000 dead since the 1970s – became guarantors of peace and stability in the Muslim-majority territory of the island of Mindanao. . The BARMM was born after the ratification of the Bangsamoro organic law (BOL), a product of negotiations between Manila and the MILF, and Murad himself headed the 80 members of the BTA that governed the five provinces of the region until the election of the members. of your Parliament.
Organized in two votes (January 21 and February 6, 2019), a referendum sanctioned that the new region is composed of the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, as well as the cities of Marawi, Lamitan, Cotabato and 63 villages in North Cotabato. However, divisions arose from the beginning: the election of the MILF, an expression of the Maguindanao ethnic group, to lead the three-year political transition phase fueled the discontent of other Islamic ethnic groups, such as the Tausug, who declared that they preferred the organization federal, and the Maranao. Then there are the fears of Christians, especially regarding religious freedom, even though Catholic leaders later expressed support for the autonomist project, stating that the BOL was “the last concrete opportunity for a just and lasting peace in Mindanao.” .
The Parliament of the new autonomous region will have 40 seats for representatives of regional parties, as well as 32 seats for district representatives and another eight for sectoral representatives; They will be the first since the creation of the BARMM in 2019 and will have “historical” significance. However, on the eve of the presentation of candidates in some sectors of the country, a request for a postponement came, beginning with the president of the Senate, Escudero, who cites the recent Supreme Court ruling that removed Sulu from the area. He then highlighted the need to create a province and congressional districts for the newly created cities in the Special Geographic Area (SGA), the 63 former villages of North Cotabato that voted to join, adding that the Malacañang (the presidency of the Republic ) was also favorable to postponement.
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