KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 10 June) — The Bangsamoro Parliament is fast-tracking the passage of the proposed reallocation of the seven parliamentary district seats in Sulu province, which the Supreme Court excluded from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in a ruling issued in September last year.
Atty. Sittie Fahanie Uy-Oyod, chair of the Committee on Amendments, Revision, and Codification of Laws, said the committee members met on Monday to expedite the review of proposals that would reconstitute the parliamentary district seats in the Bangsamoro Region in time for the historic October 13 parliamentary elections.
“Two bills addressing the reconstitution of the districts are currently under review,” she said in a press release from the Bangsamoro Transition Authority’s (BTA) Public Information, Publication, and Media Relations Division.
She identified the measures as BTA Bill 347, a bill authored by nine lawmakers, and BTA Bill 351, which is authored by the Government of the Day.
The Government of the Day refers to the nominees of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which controls the 80-member parliament with 41 seats.
Bill 347 is entitled “An Act Reapportioning the Seven Vacant Parliamentary Seats in the Bangsamoro Parliament Following the Exclusion of Sulu Province from the BARMM, Amending for the Purpose Section 4 of the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) 58, an Act Providing for the Creation of Parliamentary Districts in the BARMM, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and For Other Purposes.”
Bill 351 is entitled “An Act Reconstituting the Parliamentary Districts in the BARMM, Amending for the Purpose Bangsamoro Autonomy Act 58, entitled ‘An Act Providing for the Creation of the Parliamentary Districts in the BARMM’.”
Under BAA 58, which was approved in March 2024, the parliamentary districts are distributed as follows: three in Basilan, seven in Sulu, three in Tawi-Tawi, four each in Maguindanao del Norte and del Sur, eight in Lanao del Sur, two in Cotabato City, and one in the Special Geographic Area.
The apportionment of parliamentary districts is based on population and geographical area, with each district consisting of contiguous, compact, and adjacent areas with a minimum population of 100,000.
To ensure the reapportionment process is based on accurate data, the committee will consult the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Uy-Oyod said.
The SC ruling excluding Sulu from the BARMM raised a lot of concerns because Republic Act 11054, the Organic Law for the BARMM, provides for an 80-seat parliament, 40 of them party representatives, 32 single districts and eight sectoral. Of the 32 districts, seven were allocated for Sulu.
The deliberations for the reapportionment are expected to begin next week after the committee receives position papers from relevant stakeholders.
The committee targets to submit its report to the plenary for deliberation by the third week of June, aiming to fast-track the measure and ensure the changes are in place before the October 13, 2025 elections.
Since the BTA, the interim body tasked to govern the BARMM, was established in 2019, the first parliamentary elections in the region had been postponed twice.
The first extension was granted during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte, through Republic Act 11593 which moved the first parliamentary election from May 2022 to May 2025.
The second postponement was through RA 12123 which reset the May 12, 2025 election to October 13, 2025. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signed the postponement bill into law on February 21, 2025. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
