Commission on Elections chief George Erwin Garcia oversees the BARMM certificate of candidacy filing at the poll body regional office in Bangsamoro Government Center in Cotabato City on Monday, November 4, 2024. INQUIRER.net/John Eric Mendoza
COTABATO CITY — For village health worker Diane Tago, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARRM) should still be led by those she deemed liberators of the Moro people.
Tago echoed the call of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), which filed a resolution last month requesting that the 19th Congress extend its interim rule from 2025 to 2028. The interim body cited the legal issue regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling, which excluded Sulu province from BARRM.
The BTA, which acts as the Bangsamoro Parliament, is ruled by Chief Minister Murad Ebrahim, also the concurrent chairman of the Islamist armed group Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“We want those who put the Moro in this position, who liberated the Bangsamoro because of their efforts,” Tago, 47, a resident of Lanao del Sur, told INQUIRER.net on Monday.
Nasvia Almerol, 48, a village health worker, agreed with her colleague’s opinion, adding that she was “content” with the current leadership.
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Despite their misgivings, Tago and Amerol said they would still vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
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“We pray that those who will serve have good intentions,” Amerol told INQUIRER.net.
The first-ever Bangsamoro parliamentary elections, slated on May 12, 2025, will be conducted along with the nationwide midterm polls.
The certificate of candidacy (COC) filing began Monday at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) regional office at the Bangsamoro Government Center.
The newly elected officials will then replace the BTA, whose mandate will lapse on June 30, 2025. It was already extended by former President Rodrigo Duterte in 2021.
READ: BARMM again asks Congress to reset 2025 regional polls
Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia said there needs to be a law for another extension of the BTA.
“The decision for BTA extension is not up to the Comelec,” Garcia said in a press conference at the Comelec regional office during the COC filing. “That is political and character and therefore it is best reserved to the best judgment of the Congress or the Bangsamoro Parliament.”
However, Garcia noted that “in this case, the Bangsamoro parliament deferred to the Congress which is why they merely issued a resolution.”
Heeding the calls of the BARMM, Senate President Francis Escudero is expected to file a bill seeking the BTA extension.
READ: In Senate, Escudero to file bill seeking to postpone BARMM polls
About 65 seats are up for grabs for the upcoming Bangsamoro Parliamentary polls. Of this, 40 are reserved for regional parliamentary political parties, similar to the party-list system, while 25 are supposed for parliamentary districts.
However, the Bangsamoro Organic Law said the BARRM parliament should have 80 seats.
But eight of the seats are from 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. Garcia said it was up to the legislators if they would give these seats to other districts.
“We will always defer to the wisdom of the legislature,” Garcia said. “As far as the Comelec is concerned, we will conduct the elections because that is in our jurisdiction.”
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READ: BARMM voters ask SC to nullify key Bangsamoro Electoral Code provisions