Palace still studying postponement of BARMM elections
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. may certify the postponement of the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as urgent if he finds it “valuable” to do so.
READ: House OKs bill resetting first BARMM polls on final reading
“He is very happy there is no fighting. He is very happy there is no violence or bloody encounter. So he wants that to succeed, the BARMM. It is a big one, it is not a mere project,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said in an interview.
But he clarified that the Palace “has not yet made that decision” on whether to ask Congress to pass a measure to postpone the May 12, 2025 BARMM elections to May 11, 2026.
“That is now with Congress, the BARMM suspension of elections. They are still studying that. Of course, they asked for input from us,” he said. In November last year, the President said the government was studying proposals to postpone the first BARMM elections after the Supreme Court excluded Sulu from the region. —JULIE M. AURELIO