Galvez asks Congress: Set BARMM polls’ date
Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. had asked the Congress to fix a date for the regional parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) following the failure to conduct the political exercise it earlier set on Oct. 13 this year.
Galvez revealed this initiative during his closing remarks before some 200 participants to the international conference on “After the Peace Agreements: The Bangsamoro and Beyond” held on Nov. 19 at Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City, which was organized by the Cotabato City-based think tank Institute for Autonomy and Governance.
Galvez disclosed the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity is talking with Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, principal author of Republic Act No. 11054 or the Bangsamoro Organic Law, to enact a law setting a new date for the BARMM Parliament polls.
He added that he had appealed to legislators to give priority to such a measure in order for the first-ever regional parliamentary elections to finally push through, after being reset three times.
‘Ashamed’
The historic Bangsamoro Parliamentary election was originally set on May 9, 2022 but was reset to May 12, 2025. It was again rescheduled to Oct. 13, 2025, which was postponed after the Supreme Court invalidated Bangsamoro Autonomy Act Nos. 58 and 77, leaving no basis for electing 32 parliament members who are to be district representatives.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the erstwhile rebel group whose peace accord with the government led to the creation of BARMM, also wanted the Bangsamoro Parliament election to proceed next year as they are “ashamed of asking for another extension” of the transition period, according to MP Mohagher Iqbal, who heads the MILF peace implementing panel and also the education minister of BARMM.
“For the MILF, we are not only prepared to win, but we are also prepared to lose (in the elections),” Iqbal pointed out.
Galvez called on the Congress and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the interim government in BARMM, to convene through the Intergovernmental Relations Body, to thresh out the matter like agreeing on the proposed districting law and a possible date of the election.
In a Sept. 30 ruling, the SC, after finding the impossibility of holding the regional elections on Oct. 13, set a time frame of “not later than March 31, 2026” for its conduct, subject to the enactment of a law creating 32 parliamentary districts throughout the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur; Cotabato City; and the BARMM’s Special Geographic Area composed of eight towns.
Galvez said Zubiri gave assurances “it would be easy to set the date of the election” once the BTA approves a districting law that complies with the Constitution.
