DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 30 September) – Unlike the political parties of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under Muslimin Sema, Mahardika, the political party of the MNLF under founding chair Nur Misuari, agrees with the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) move to invoke force majeure to postpone the October 13 polls.
In its comment submitted to the Comelec, Mahardika prayed that the Comelec would “recognize the issuance of the TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) against BAA No. 77, the resultant operational impossibilities, and the flooding in BARMM as constituting force majeure and analogous causes under Section 5 of the Omnibus Election Code.”
The Mahardika also hopes the Comelec would declare that the conduct of the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) scheduled for October 13 is “no longer feasible” and that it would postpone the election “to a date most conducive to the conduct of a free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible election after the cessation of the causes for such postponement.”
The Supreme Court on September 15 issued a TRO barring the Comelec and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) from implementing Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) 77 or the redistricting law that reallocated the seven seats originally intended for Sulu, pending the final resolution of the two petitions filed before the Supreme Court.
The SC ruling was announced on September 16. On September 17, the Comelec en banc passed a resolution suspending all preparations for the October 13 polls, citing the TRO and claiming there is no law governing the first BPE because BAA 58, which was its basis for the parliamentary district seat election, was repealed by BAA 77.
On September 25, Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia said their Project Management Office informed them that it is not only a “legal impossibility (but also) factually impossible” to hold the elections on October 13 because there is no more time to go around the five provinces of the BARMM to, among others, conduct voters’ education. The Comelec also could no longer explain to the voters that some candidates they had wanted to vote for now belong to another district.
The Comelec, in Resolution 25-1034 issued on September 25, said the legal issue confronting the Commission is whether the issuance of the TRO and the question of what law to apply for the conduct of the BPE may be considered as force majeure, sufficient to invoke Section 5 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 881 or the Omnibus Election Code.
The resolution gave all political parties, sectoral organizations, candidates, election stakeholders and citizens’ arms a non-extendible period of 48 hours to submit a comment on the force majeure issue, after which the issue of the existence of force majeure in relation to the October 13 polls “shall be resolved by the Commission with or without the submission of comments.”
The MILF’s political party – the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) – said alluding to the TRO issued by the Supreme Court as a situation falling under force majeure is “legally untenable.”
The Bangsamoro Party (BaPa), the political party of the MNLF under Muslimin Sema has a similar stand.
“The issuance of the TRO and the question of what law to apply on the conduct of the BPE cannot be considered as force majeure which will warrant the suspension of the 13 Oct 2025 BARMM parliamentary elections,” it said.
There are seven regional parliamentary political parties in the Bangsamoro: the MLF’s UBJP, MNLF-Sema’s BaPa, MNLF-Nur’s Mahardika, BARMM Grand Coalition (BGC), Moro Ako Party (Moro Ako), Progresibong Bangsamoro Party (PRO BM), and Bangsamoro People’s (Raayat) Democratic Party (RDP).
(Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
