Comelec suspends filing of COC for BARMM polls
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has suspended the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) for the 2026 Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary elections amid the absence of a parliamentary redistricting law.
Under the Comelec Resolution No. 11181 dated November 19, 2025, the poll body originally set the period of COC filing on January 5-9, 2026 as the Supreme Court (SC) postponed the Bangsamoro parliamentary elections (BPE) set on October 13, 2025 after it declared that the redistricting law Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 77, and its predecessor BAA No. 58 are both unconstitutional.
The resolution also sets the election period from January 29, 2026 to April 14, 2026 with the campaign period scheduled from February 12, 2026 to March 28, 2026.
READ: BARMM misses poll body’s deadline on redistricting law
In its resolution dated Monday, the Comelec noted that the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) has not yet complied with the SC’s directive to pass a new redistricting law by October 30, 2025. The SC also directed the Comelec to hold the elections not later than March 30, 2026.
“[T]he Commission HEREBY RESOLVES to SUSPEND the January 5-9 period of filing [of] certificates of candidacy for the 2026 BARMM Parliamentary Elections and to fix the filing of the certificates of candidacy in due time after the enactment of the parliamentary districting by the BTA,” the two-page resolution read.
The media office of the BTA said that the parliament’s session ended last Thursday and will resume its regular session in January next year. However, the parliament failed to enact into law the BTA Bill No. 45, which provides for the 32 single-member parliamentary districts and sets the elections on March 30, 2026.
BAA No. 77, signed into law last August 28, 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 BOL 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.
READ: Supreme Court pushes back BARMM parliamentary polls
‘BARMM polls eyed in November 2026’
Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia said that the poll body might have a “problem” as the BTA is yet to pass a redistricting law that will provide for the conduct of the elections.
With this, he said that the poll body is planning to conduct the elections in November 2026, simultaneous with the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE).
“If the elections on March 30 won’t push through, the Comelec will be supporting and in fact endorsing a bill that if the polls will not happen on March 30, then at least conduct them simultaneously with the BSKE.,” Garcia told reporters in an interview last Friday.
Garcia also said that as the parliamentary elections will be automated, the poll body wants the BSKE in BARMM to be automated too. /mr
