BARMM welcomes Palace call for urgent action on measure to reset polls
File photo of BARMM regional headquarters
COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro government has welcomed the certification by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as urgent the proposed measure to postpone the first parliamentary elections in the region to a later date and not go along the midterm elections in May.
“We welcome the development that there is a certificate of urgency from (President Marcos) regarding the rescheduling of the parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro region,” said Mohd Asnin Pendatun, spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
“We look forward to the final date so that we can refocus and zero-in (on) the adjustments based on the new schedule of the polls,” he added.
READ: Bill rescheduling BARMM polls to August 2025 reached Senate plenary
The Presidential Communications Office had said the President certified Senate Bill 2942, which proposes the rescheduling of the BARMM parliamentary elections to August this year.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. JV Ejercito on the floor, was approved on second reading on Tuesday.
A bill postponing the BARMM regional balloting was approved on the third and final reading by the House of Representatives last December.
House Bill 11144 seeks to reset the regional elections from May 12, 2025 to May 11, 2026.
“It’s a big deal that there is a certification of urgency, for it gives a signal that this (parliamentary election) is the priority of the national government,” Pendatun said.
Pendatun said the time given for the extension would allow the reapportionment of the seven parliamentary district seats for Sulu to the other existing areas in the BARMM after the Supreme Court ruled that the province is no longer part of the autonomous region.
But BARMM Education Minister Mohaqher Iqbal favors the holding of the parliamentary elections in May this year as scheduled.
“This will hasten the exit agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF),” said Iqbal who chairs the government peace panel said.
