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Friday, February 14, 2025

Senate bill delaying BARMM polls to Oct. certified urgent

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President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. certified as urgent the Senate version of a bill seeking to postpone the first general elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for five months to October 2025.

“This is confirmed,” Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cesar Chavez said in a message to Palace reporters.

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Asked which version of the measure was certified as urgent, Chavez said it was Senate Bill No. 2942, which the Upper Chamber approved on second reading Tuesday evening.

A separate bill seeking to move the BARMM polls to May 11, 2026 was passed on third and final reading at the House of Representatives in December.

The certification now allows the Senate to approve the measure – which originally reschedules the elections to August 11, 2025 but further moved it to October 13, 2025 – on third and final reading on the same day.

Senate President Francis Escudero said with President’s certification, he expects the bill to hurdle the Upper Chamber next week before Congress adjourns for the campaign period on February 8.

In an interview in Cotabato City last week, Bangamoro member of parliament and Minister of Interior and Local Government Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba said they have sent a position paper to the Marcos administration seeking to defer the elections for two more years.

Dumama-Alba said extending the holdover capacity of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, the interim government of BARMM, would better ensure that all the commitments under the peace agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are implemented.

Bangsamoro Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal, for his part, said the MILF is ready to accept the result of the first BARMM elections amid the move to postpone it to October this year instead of to two years later as pushed by the BTA.

“Nothing is perfect. This is now in the hands of Congress,” he said.

“But we’re prepared for the elections. We are prepared to win and we are prepared to lose – that’s how prepared we are,” Iqbal added.

The MILF has formed the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), which is fielding candidates for both the local and regional parliamentary elections.

Majority or 41 members of the 80-member BTA, which governs BARMM at present, belong to the MILF.

MILF chairperson Murad Ebrahim serves as the Interim Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro government.

Escudero said postponing the BARMM polls for five months would allow the BTA to reallocate seats in parliament previously assigned to Sulu province, which the Supreme Court ruled was not part of BARMM.

Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel, however, said the move could permanently “desynchronize” the BARMM elections from national and local polls.

Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong thanked President Marcos for the certification, saying it underscored “the national government’s commitment to ensuring that the Bangsamoro electoral process is not only democratic but also conducted under conditions that promote stability, inclusivity, and genuine representation.”

“The road to lasting peace and self-governance is not without its challenges, but with this crucial step, we affirm our collective dedication to a peaceful, credible, and successful transition toward a fully functioning parliamentary government in BARMM,” Adiong said.

The Commission on Elections said it will no longer include the printing of ballots for BARMM.

Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Marcos certifies bill resetting BARMM elections as urgent.”

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