BARMM elections set on 2025

‘Marcos pledges support to peace, unity’ 

COTABATO CITY – President Bongbong Marcos said elections in the Bangsamoro autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM shall push through in 2025.

Under the law, the transition period is only three years from 2019 and the first BARMM elections were supposed to be held this year but Congress extended the term of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority or BTA until 2025 to fulfil its mandated duties in achieving long-term peace and prosperity in the Muslim region.

The Republic Act No. 11593, signed on October 28 last year, resets the first regular elections in BARMM and would now be synchronized with the 2025 national elections. The law also extended the transition period and allowed the BTA - composed of 80 members - to continue as the interim government in the region.

BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim with President Marcos and other officials during the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-appointed members of Bangsamoro Transition Authority on Friday, August 12, 2022 at the Malacañang Palace.

Marcos pledged to continue supporting the BARMM, saying he recognized the important work that the interim government needs to complete in three years. He also acknowledged the great deal of work the BTA should accomplish in three years, from the enactment of basic laws and fiscal policy to the conduct of elections.

“Such important laws to be passed in three years is not an easy task, and that’s why I will be here as head of the national government to support BARMM,” he told newly sworn-in members of the BTA in a recent ceremony in Malacañang.

Marcos acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic made it very difficult for the BTA to do its work, thus the extension. “We are given another chance because of the extension of the Transition Authority. We are given another chance, but we have three years, and three years is not a long time for this rather basic and fundamental and highly important pieces of legislation that have to be produced now by the Transition Authority,” he said.

He underscored the need to complete the work in 2025 as there will no longer be any extensions. “In 2025, we no longer will have any extensions to the authority, and we will conduct elections,” the President said.

Marcos also emphasized the importance of representation in the BTA and conveyed his confidence to the new appointees. “It is important that we’re going to give a voice to all the stakeholders, to all the parties that are involved. But I’m confident because I have seen the list of the new appointees, the new members, and I believe that everyone has come on to be part of this process with a sincere desire to get BARMM back into the normal fold of life in the Philippines,” he said.

BARMM Chief Minister Ahod (Murad) Ebrahim has thanked and expressed his gratitude to Marcos on the BTA composition and for staying true to the spirit of the peace process. “We are deeply grateful to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. for understanding the importance of our work during the extension of the transition period and to assure that we can install a bureaucracy that can address the needs of our people for generations to come,” he said.

Ebrahim, who led the first BTA composition of the previous administration, took their oath August 12 before the President in Malacañang together with 79 other members of the parliament, representing the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF, the Moro National Liberation Front or MNLF, and government representatives from various sectors.

He lauded Marcos for uniting the MILF and the MNLF together with other sectors as representatives of Bangsamoro in one chamber.

“We are equally grateful for President Marcos’ eagerness to assure that the new Bangsamoro Transition Authority is composed of meaningful representation from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Moro National Liberation Front, sectoral groups, and other important stakeholders across the region, making the BTA Parliament a chamber for all voices to be heard,” Ebrahim said.

Among the members of the BTA are Abdulkarim and Nurredha Misuari, children of Nur Misuari, the chairman of the MNLF; and Abdullah Hashim, son of late MILF chairman Salamat Hashim.

Ebrahim said he is committed to peace and joins the President’s call for unity. “As we continue our duties in the interim government, we join the President’s call towards national unity and set aside whatever differences that divide us,” he said.

The BTA is an executive and legislative body created under the Bangsamoro Organic Law or the Republic Act 11054, which is tasked to oversee the transition from 2019 until 2025 elections. (Mindanao Examiner. With additional reports from the BARMM government.)