CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 18 May) — Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan will challenge the leadership of Interim Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim in the 80-member Parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2025.
Tan made his announcement to run as a representative of Salam Party and challenge the current BARMM leadership during a big political rally in Maimbung town in Sulu province Saturday.
Four political parties attended the rally and formed the Bangsamoro Grand Coalition.
The coalition comprises Serbisyong Inklusibo-Alyansa Progresibong Party (SIAP) led by Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong, Al-Ittihad-UKB founded by Secretary Suharto Mangudadatu, Tan’s Salam Party and Bangsamoro People’s Party led by Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman.
Coalition spokesperson Amir Mawalli said the four parties have endorsed Tan’s candidacy for the BARMM elections in 2025.
“Governor Tan will run for member of the BARMM Parliament under the banner of the Bangsamoro Grand Coalition,” Mawalli said in a phone interview.
If Tan wins in the elections, he needs to get the majority vote in the Parliament, he added.
SIAP President and Lanao del Sur Vice Governor Mohammad Khalid Raki-in Adiong said Tan has been the natural choice for Chief Minister by the coalition since talks started in January this year.
“Tan is our unanimous candidate and all of us will endorse him one hundred percent,” Adiong said in a phone interview.
In a statement, the coalition said Tan’s record as governor is a testament of good governance and that through his leadership the threat of the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu was eliminated.
The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) currently serves as the interim parliament of BARMM, exercising both legislative and executive powers and functions.
The BTA has 80 members, 41 of whom were nominated by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the remaining 39 by the government.
Its term was supposed to end on June 30, 2022 but Congress postponed the regional elections to 2025.
The Bangsamoro Parliament that will be formed after the election next year will have 40 party, 32 district and eight sectoral representatives.
Ebrahim, better known as Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, chair of the MILF, has served as Interim Chief Minister since the creation of the autonomous region after the ratification of the Organic Law for the BARMM in a plebiscite in 2019.
The MILF has formed the United Bangsamoro Justice Party and will field candidates in the 2025 elections. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
