BARMM ‘balance of power’ emerges in districting debate
COTABATO CITY—The balance of power between and among major ethnolinguistic groups in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has emerged as among the issues when the parliament resumed deliberations on Monday on a measure to create 32 parliamentary districts.
The regional legislature convened for a special session upon the request of Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua in hopes of having the districting measure passed soonest.
At least 70 members of parliament (MPs) responded to the roll call, and the session was formally called to order at past 2 p.m., solely to consider Committee Report No. 196, which was submitted by the committees on rules and local government and contained, among others, a working draft of the measure.
MP Naguib Sinarimbo, who chairs the committee on local government, said the two committees had chosen Parliament Bill (PB) No. 415 as the version that closely addresses the issues flagged by the Supreme Court in declaring as unconstitutional Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 77, a districting measure passed in December 2024.
These are mainly the issues of some districts in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and Cotabato City, as being composed of localities that are not adjacent and contiguous to each other.
Least risk
Deputy Speaker Laisa Alamia, in her interpellation of Sinarimbo, acknowledged that PB 415 had the least risk of potentially generating legal questions, but that it puts to a disadvantage the island provinces of Basilan and Tawi-Tawi in terms of representation in the parliament.
“[PB 415] and most of the redistricting bills effectively consolidate power to the Maguindanao and Maranao [ethnolinguistic] groups and potentially drown out the voices of the Yakan and Sama peoples,” Alamia said.
PB 415 gives only four districts each to Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.
Another version of the measure, PB 411, seeks to give Basilan five districts, seemingly to compensate for the seven seats that the island provinces collectively lost when Sulu was declared by the high court as not part of the BARMM because the majority of its voters rejected the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) in a 2019 plebiscite.
With the island provinces only afforded eight seats in all, the BARMM is practically dominated by mainland Moros, especially Maguindanaos and Maranaos.
In PB 415, Lanao del Sur has nine districts, while Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur have five districts each, three more for Cotabato City, and two in the Maguindanao-dominated Special Geographic Area.
Sympathy
In response, Sinarimbo acknowledged the imbalance, expressing sympathy to the Moros in the island provinces, especially Sulu, for the lost representation in the BARMM. But he said that at the moment, this can be remedied by the political parties increasing their nominees for party representation among those from the islands.
Under the BOL, the 80-seat parliament is composed of party representatives (40), district representatives (32) and sectoral representatives (8).
As of 7 p.m. on Monday, the parliament had entered the period of amendments after some four hours of interpellation on Sinarimbo’s committee report.
Sinarimbo earlier told the Inquirer he is confident about having the measure passed during the special session, which gathered the most number of MPs in attendance since the districting debates began last month.
Crucial
Passage of the measure is crucial in setting off the next steps for the holding of the BARMM’s first-ever parliamentary elections that will take the region to a path of democratic governance, which is one of the key promises of the 2014 peace deal between the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The MILF, which had its members among the MPs, gave up its secessionist struggle for greater autonomous powers for the regional government.
The deliberations had indicated that the parliament had overcome the perceived legal issue of it having to pass the measure within the 120-day period prior to Election Day, when any alteration of districts, precincts or territorial configuration is prohibited, based on an earlier caution by the Bangsamoro Attorney General’s Office. —WITH A REPORT FROM RYAN ROSAURO
