SC urged to resolve cases linked to BARMM polls

KORONADAL CITY—A member of Parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has urged the Supreme Court to resolve all pending cases related to the holding of the first regional parliamentary elections.

Lawyer Ishak Mastura on Wednesday filed Resolution No. 772 to support the parliament’s call for the high tribunal to urgently decide on four pending cases that could potentially affect the holding of the regional polls.

Mastura said “all legal and constitutional issues regarding the conduct of the first BARMM parliamentary elections” must be settled first.

In a Sept. 30 ruling, the high court had reset the regional polls from Oct. 13 this year to not later than March 31 next year because the region has no existing law on parliamentary districts where 32 parliament members will be elected.

Mastura noted that among others, petitions for certiorari have been filed against the Bangsamoro Electoral Code, and that Republic Act No. 12123 that set the regional polls to Oct. 13 this year from May 12 had been questioned on constitutional grounds.

The immediate resolution of these cases will serve as a guide, and set the parameters for the revision of any districting law, as well as amendments and revisions of the Bangsamoro Electoral Code, and for any law that may be filed by Congress for rescheduling the elections, Mastura said in his resolution.

“If the pending cases before the Supreme Court in relation to the first BARMM parliamentary elections are decided before March 30, 2026, then this will ensure that the conduct of the elections will no longer have any legal or constitutional issues that may complicate or forestall it,” he added.

Constitutional question

Under Resolution No. 11181 of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) dated Nov. 19, the poll body set the date of the first Bangsamoro parliamentary elections on March 30, 2026, supposedly in compliance with the Supreme Court decision declaring the previous districting laws—Bangsamoro Autonomy Act Nos. 58 and 77—unconstitutional.

The high court directed the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) or the Bangsamoro Parliament to “immediately undertake by Oct. 30, 2025 at the latest” the passage of a new law for the 32 parliamentary district seats “in strict compliance with the priorities and requirements provided to the Bangsamoro Organic Law, as well as the criteria laid down in this decision.”

It also urged Congress to “promptly enact a law that would reschedule the BARMM Parliamentary Elections … as much as practicable, not later than March 31, 2026.”

To date, the Bangsamoro Parliament has yet to pass a new districting law.

There are five districting bills now pending before the Bangsamoro Parliament’s Joint Committees on Rules and Local Governments.

No bill on setting the date of the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections has been filed at the House of Representatives and the Senate as both chambers are awaiting the passage of the BTA’s new districting law.