GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 28 April) — Barely a year before the May 2025 elections, Moro leaders are taking “battle positions” for the first democratic exercise that will give voters in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) a chance to pick who will be their voice in the Bangsamoro Parliament.
The 80 elected members of the Bangsamoro Parliament will take their oath on June 30, 2025, the same day the six-year transition period ends.
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. had recently said that the election “needs to happen to give legitimacy and accountability to officials who will be chosen by the people.”
The President’s message was relayed to BARMM leaders by Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., during a Grand Iftar in northern Kabuntalan, Maguindanao del Norte last month.
Marcos Jr. is set to visit Parang and Barira in Maguindanao del Norte on Monday, April 29, his fourth visit in the Cotabato-Maguindanao area since he assumed the presidency in 2022.
The BARMM is presently governed by the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) appointed by then President Rodrigo Duterte in 2019 and by President Marcos in 2022. During their oath-taking in August 2022, Marcos said: “In 2025, we no longer will have any extension to the authority, and we will conduct elections.”
Bolt and split
The forthcoming election has drawn political boundaries and shown rifts within the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which currently runs the BARMM after forging a peace deal with the government — the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) — with the government in 2014.
The CAB led to the establishment of the BARMM and the abolition of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
On Saturday, April 27, prominent Moro leaders from within and outside BARMM gathered in separate events in efforts to solidify their political bases and make public their intentions to challenge in the elections the current MILF leadership of the BARMM.
Conspicuously in these events, Joharie “Butch” Abu, the vice mayor of BARMM’s capital Cotabato City and son of an MILF leader, announced he was bolting the MILF’s political party – the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) — to join the Serbisyong Inklusibo – Alyansang Progresibo (SIAP), a regional political party founded in Lanao del Sur.
Abu, who was inducted weeks earlier into the Marcos political party, Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), said it was not an easy decision for him to leave UBJP, a party led by BARMM Interim Chief Minister Ahod Balawag “Murad” Ebrahim, a close ally of Abu’s father.
Abu’s father — the late Hadji Salik B. Abu, more known as “Ghazali Jaafar,” was MILF vice chair for political affairs who was appointed in 2017 to chair the Bangsamoro Transition Commission that drafted the Bangsamoro Basic Law. Already ill, the elder Abu collapsed during oath-taking ceremonies of the BTA in Malacanang. He became the first BTA speaker. But, less than a month into his term, Abu died on March 13, 2019.
In an official statement released on Friday, April 26, the young Abu cited his intention to “seek a higher position,” which left many Cotabato City residents wondering if it is to challenge his 2022 running-mate and now Cotabato City mayor Mohammad “Bruce” Matabalao or to seek a seat in the BARMM parliament.
Abu took his oath as SIAP member along with six Cotabato City legislators Hunyn Abu, Marouf Pasawiran, Henjie Ali, Abdulrakim Gabby Usman and Kusin Taha and 18 village chairs. The mass oath-taking on Saturday was held in Cotabato City and attended by SIAP officials and thousands of residents.
Among those who took their oath was lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, the former BARMM local government minister whose public appearance became scarce after his controversial split from the BARMM government in December, last year.
Sinarimbo was introduced in the ceremonies as president of the SIAP chapter in Cotabato City and the BARMM Special Geographic Areas, which was recently created into eight new towns whose mayors and other officials will be appointed by the BARMM Chief Minister.
Known among colleagues in the regional government as a brilliant political strategist, Sinarimbo played a crucial role in the formation of UBJP until it was officially accredited as a political party by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Alliances and coalitions
In a press conference on Saturday, the former BARMM minister said SIAP is open to alliances and coalitions with other political parties in the region, including UBJP, “taking into consideration the political situation and geographic spread of the region.”
SIAP, founded by Lanao del Sur governor Mamintal Adiong, recently formed a coalition with other political parties like the Al-Ittihad-UKB Party and the Bangsamoro People’s Party (BPP).
Al-Ittihad-UKB was founded by Secretary Suharto Mangudadatu of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) while Basilan Representative Mujiv Hataman founded the BPP.
“To run a government in a parliamentary system, we need to have coalitions and alliances with other political parties,” said Sinarimbo. During his term as BARMM local government minister, Sinarimbo was on a legal tug-of-war with Mangudadatu’s wife Maguindanao del Sur governor Mariam over some decisions.
BARMM not for a few
At the general convention of the Al-Ittihad-UKB Party in the town of Datu Abdullah Sangki, Maguindanao del Sur, on Saturday, April 27, Mangudadatu’s son Governor Pax Ali of Sultan Kudarat province in the Soccsksargen region, took a swipe on the BARMM leadership.
“The BARMM was not created to benefit only a few, not the ‘datu,’ not the chief minister, not the members of parliament, but for every constituent of the Bangsamoro region,” the Sultan Kudarat governor said while addressing the convention crowd.
He said the presence of political leaders from all over BARMM in Saturday’s convention is an indication that “We are all ready to face voters and are not scared to have the elections.”
Mangudadatu’s remarks were apparently addressed to civil society groups allied with the MILF that are pushing for an extension of the BTA until 2028, in effect cancelling the first BARMM parliamentary elections in 2025.
The convention was graced by Hataman, Sulu governor Sakur Tan, Sulu Representative Munir Arbison, Maguindanao del Norte Representative Dimple Mastura, Maguindanao del Sur Representative Tong Paglas and Lanao del Sur Mayors’ League President and SIAP party chair Dimnatang Pansar. (Rommel Rebollido / MindaNews)
