Comelec cites rule on BARMM COC filing if polls moved to 2026

(From left): Commission on Elections executive director Teofisto Elnas Jr. and chairman George Erwin Garcia during the press conference for the submission of certificate of candidacies of aspirants for the first-ever Bangsamoro parliamentary polls. INQUIRER.net/John Eric Mendoza

MANILA, Philippines — The certificates of candidacy (COC) filed by hundreds of aspirants for Bangsamoro parliamentary polls will not be honored if the elections get moved to 2026, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said that the election body officially received at its headquarters in Palacio del Gobernador in Intramuros  on Friday the COCs from Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARRM). 

Garcia said there will be another COC filing should the elections be moved to 2026.

“Unless the law itself, if ever, states that whoever filed their candidacy now would also be the candidate once the elections get reset,” Garcia said in a press conference.

“But under ordinary circumstances when there is no provision like that, all of the filing of candidacy will be disregarded and therefore there would be another filing of certificate of candidacy,” he added.

Senate President Francis Escudero filed a bill to defer the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s (BARRM) parliamentary polls to May 11, 2026.

Escudero said this extension will allow the region to reconfigure its jurisdictions as well as reallocate the seven out of 80 seats left by Sulu after the Supreme Court ruled that the province is not part of BARRM. 

Even if the BARRM elections gets postponed, Garcia does not see the recently-concluded COC filing as a waste of time.

Garcia reiterated that there were 109 aspirants for 65 parliamentary district seats.

“It means that there is a high degree of interest among Bangsamoro aspirants because despite the talks of an election reset, they still filed their COCs,” he said.

Of the 109, Lanao del Sur has the highest share at 41, followed by Maguindanao del Norte with 24, Maguindanao del Sur with 15, Tawi-Tawi with 10, Basilan with 14, and five from the BARMM Special Geographic Area.

The Bangsamoro Organic Law said the BARRM parliament should have 80 seats.

However, only 65 seats are up for grabs for the upcoming autonomous polls, of which 25 are allotted for parliamentary district representatives. 

The rest, or 40, are reserved for regional parliamentary political parties, similar to the party-list system.

Eight seats are for sectoral groups, which shall be elected in their own convention or assembly separate from the parliamentary polls.

The seven remaining seats were supposed to be for Sulu which is no longer part of BARRM.