Comelec postpones March 30 Bangsamoro parliamentary elections

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has postponed the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary elections, citing legal and operational concerns.

This was announced by Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia on Wednesday, noting that the postponement was approved through a resolution by the Comelec en banc during its regular session on the same day. 

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“This comes after our executive director, the law department, and the Bangsamoro Study Group recommended that, legally and operationally, it is no longer feasible to hold the elections on March 30,” Garcia, speaking Filipino, told reporters in an interview.

Garcia explained that the elections cannot be held on March 30, 2026, due to the lack of a redistricting law in effect for the Bangsamoro Parliament and insufficient time to prepare for the elections. The parliament approved a redistricting measure on third and final reading on January 13, with Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua signing the law on January 20.

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“Legally, this would not comply with the Supreme Court’s instruction that Comelec can conduct the Bangsamoro Parliamentary elections only if held within 120 days before the election, because the chief minister just signed it last week and it is not yet in effect, as it has not been published, according to information we received from the Bangsamoro,” Garcia said in Filipino.

Citing operational reasons, Garcia noted that the poll body would fall short from its preparations given that the supposed elections would commence in two months, including the use of an automated election system. 

With this postponement, Garcia said that the resolution also effectively terminated Comelec Resolutions Nos. 11181 and 11184 or the Calendar of Activities and Period of Certain Prohibited Acts for the parliamentary elections. 

Meanwhile, Garcia said that the parliamentary elections require P2.5 billion in funding, noting that the poll body’s funds for the elections are still intact after the P1.2 billion it spent for printing ballots for the supposed October 13, 2025 elections were returned under the 2026 national budget.

New law needed

Garcia also said that it is now up for the Congress to craft a law fixing a new date for the parliamentary elections. He added that only the Congress has the authority to repeal or amend a law, given that the Republic Act No. 12123 postponing the elections from May 12, 2025 to October 13, 2025 is deemed as the continuation of the May 2025 midterm elections. 

“We are appealing to the Congress, and we already relayed this, to not hold the Bangsamoro parliamentary elections by 2027 or 2028, which will coincide with the national and local elections. So our countrymen can focus on electing president and vice president,” Garcia said in Filipino.

While there is still no exact date of the conduct of the elections, Garcia assured the residents in Bangsamoro that the parliamentary elections must be held, despite other factors above the poll body’s control. INQUIRER has reached out to Macacua for his statement on the postponement of the elections and has yet to receive a response as of this writing. 

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The first parliamentary elections were originally scheduled on May 12, 2025 but was rescheduled to October 13, 2025. However, the SC postponed the elections after it declared that the redistricting law Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 77, and its predecessor BAA No. 58 are both unconstitutional. 

BAA No. 77, signed into law on August 28, 2025, is the law that redistributed seven seats originally allocated to Sulu. The SC earlier ruled to exclude Sulu from the region after the province rejected the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law in a plebiscite. Meanwhile, the BAA No. 58 created the parliamentary districts in the region. 

The BARMM Parliamentary has 80 seats, of which 40 seats are allocated for party representatives, 32 for single-member parliamentary districts, and eight for sectoral representatives. /jpv