Comelec urges Congress to decide on fate of 2025 BARMM polls

Commission on Elections Chairman George Erwin Garcia  (INQUIRER.net  file photo/ NOY MORCOSO)

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) appealed to Congress to  finalize before the end of December whether or not it would push for the deferment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s (BARMM) parliamentary polls.

Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia made the appeal at the Senate’s Thursday hearing, but emphasized that he is not pressuring both chambers of Congress. 

“Isa lang po ang pakiusap ng Comelec: Hindi po ito pressure sa ating Kongreso pero ang katotohanan lang po, sana po ay may development kung matutuloy o hindi ang ating halalan sapagkat mag iimprenta ang Comelec ng balota ng huling linggo ng Disyembre,” said Garcia. 

(Comelec only has one appeal: This is not to put pressure on Congress but the truth is, I hope there will be development whether or not the elections will push through because Comelec still needs to print ballots by the last week of December.)

“So ibig sabihin po ifa-finalize namin ang list of candidates hopefully before December 13 of this year,” he added. 

(So that means we need to finalize the list of candidates hopefully by December 13 this year.)

Senate President Francis Escudero on November 4 filed Senate Bill No. 2862, formalizing his earlier plan  to postpone BARMM’s parliamentary polls in view of the recent Supreme Court ruling excluding Sulu from the regional group. 

In his bill, Escuero said BARMM’s first parliamentary election is scheduled for 2025, but is pushing to have it instead on May 11, 2026 to allow the region to reconfigure its jurisdictions as well as reallocate the seats of its 80-member parliament following the Supreme Court ruling on Sulu.

Garcia also raised several legal issues hounding the BARMM polls. One of these is the composition of the BARMM parliament now that Sulu has been excluded from the region. 

 “Ang probinsya ng Sulu dapat ay mag pitong representante dyan sa parliamento. Ang pinaghahandaan ng Comelec ay 80 na miyembro ng parliament dahil yan ang nakalagay sa batas,” said Garcia. 

 (The province of Sulu needs to have seven representatives in the parliament. What the Comelec is preparing for is 80 members because that is mandated by law.)

 He said questions were also raised about whether or not Comelec would still proceed even if there would only be 73 members of the parliament.

Gacia said he hopes that these legal questions will be resolved.