Group bucks putting off BARMM polls
COTABATO CITY—Groups and individuals have assailed the plan of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to postpone the first Bangsamoro Parliament elections set on Oct. 13.
“Elections [are] your constitutional duty, not a convenience you can cancel at whim,” said Lawyer Camilo Montesa, a former official of the then Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, adding that “to cancel elections without solid basis is a betrayal of public trust.”
The election watchdog group Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente) also believed there is no reason to postpone elections since the grounds for doing so under the Omnibus Election Code are “limited by the geographical scope, and gravity and unforeseen nature of the causes that would render impossible the holding of a free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible election.”
It said the Comelec is duty-bound to enforce Republic Act No. 11054, as amended by Republic Act No. 12123, which set the balloting on Oct. 13 this year, adding the poll body did not have legal basis to “motu proprio” postpone the elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The first-ever BARMM parliamentary election was already postponed twice—first in 2022 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and this year, when it was moved from May 2025 to October 2025 following the Supreme Court decision in September last year, severing Sulu from the BARMM.
Not a force majeure
Both Montesa and Lente, in separate statements, also pointed out that the issuance of the temporary restraining order (TRO) by the Supreme Court, which prompted the Comelec to stop its preparations for the BARMM polls, did “not constitute a force majeure,” as Comelec Commissioner George Garcia earlier said.
The high court issued the TRO based on a petition of some Moro leaders questioning the redistricting law passed by the BARMM parliament that reallocated the seven elective parliament seats initially intended for Sulu.
“The issuance of the TRO is removed from the ambit of force majeure,” said Lente in a statement, adding, “Comelec cannot, therefore, invoke force majeure as a ground for the postponement of the BARMM Parliamentary Elections.”
Garcia said on Thursday that the Comelec was studying the possible postponement of the BARMM elections after it suspended its preparations following the issuance by the Supreme Court of the TRO enjoining Comelec against implementing the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 77, the regional law that reconstituted the parliamentary districts where 32 of 80 representatives in the BARMM legislature will be elected from.
The Comelec, in a resolution, noted that its preparations for the Oct. 13 elections “have been drastically affected” by the TRO. It said that even if it resumed its preparations, the poll body would need at least four weeks to prepare for the polls, which would already overshoot the schedule of the political exercise.
The poll body also noted reports from its field offices that 21 voting centers in six towns of the BARMM Special Geographic Area were affected by the recent flooding due to heavy rains brought by the southwest monsoon.
It added that its provincial hub, where automated counting machines and internet connectivity hardware for each clustered precinct were supposed to be stored, has been temporarily used to shelter patients from a flooded government hospital in Buluan town.
Stay calm
Bangsamoro Member of Parliament Rasol Mitmug, the deputy flood leader of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, has called on the Bangsamoro people to remain calm and wait for the final decision of the Supreme Court on whether the BARMM election will push through or move to a later date.
“This is a historic electoral exercise for the region, and it deserves clarity, order and respect for due process,” Mitmug, a lawyer, said in a statement on Saturday. —WITH A REPORT FROM RYAN ROSAURO
