DAVAO CITY (MindaNews /02 February) – The Senate bill resetting the first Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections from May 12, 2025 to October 13, 2025 is expected to be passed on third and final reading on Monday, February 3, four days before Congress adjourns.
The bill effectively extends the term of the appointed members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) by four months – from June 30, supposedly the end of the six-year transition period — to October 30 when the first elected officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) take their oath as Members of Parliament (MPs). The MPs elect the Chief Minister in this autonomous region with a parliamentary system of governance.
The Senate, through Senate President Francis Escudero, filed Senate Bill 2862 on November 4, 2024, proposing to reset the date of the Bangsamoro parliamentary polls to May 11, 2026. The bill also specified that the term of the BTA “shall be deemed expired” upon the effectivity of the law, and the President is to appoint a new set of 80 members “who shall serve until their successors shall have been elected and qualified.”
The House of Representatives, through Speaker Martin Romualdez, filed House Bill 11034 on November 5, seeking the same postponement as SB 2862.
The House of Representatives passed House Bill 11144, the substitute bill to HB 11034 and other Bangsamoro election-related bills, on December 17, 2024. The substitute bill reset the date of the Bangsamoro parliamentary polls to May 11, 2026 and the appointment of a new set of BTA members.
SB 2862 was substituted by Senate Bill 2942, which took into consideration HB 11144.
SB 2942 initially reset the election date from May 12, 2025 to May 11, 2026, proposed to move it to August 11, 2025 and later changed it to October 13, 2025.
The bill was passed on second reading, with amendments, on January 28 and is scheduled for third and last reading on Monday, February 3.
The bicameral committee conference is expected to convene on Tuesday to settle, reconcile or thresh out differences or disagreements on any provision of the bill and submit its report for consideration and approval of both Houses of Congress.
If the Senate-proposed date — October 13 – is approved by the bicameral conference committee, this would be the second postponement of the BARMM parliamentary polls and the second extension of the BTA.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had certified as urgent the passage of SB 2942 which sets the election date to October 13, and the next election synchronized with the May 2028 elections and every three years thereafter.
As approved on second reading, the bill provides that the term of office of the elected members shall begin on October 30, 2025 and incumbent BTA members shall continue to serve until their successors shall have been elected and qualified “unless such interim members are replaced by the President or their tenure is shortened by their election to a different position.”
The bill notes that those who filed their certificates of candidacy for the parliamentary districts and nominees for party representatives in November for the scheduled May 12, 2025 parliamentary polls, “shall be automatically considered as candidates and nominees in the October 2025 election.”
The bill states that new filings for Certificates of Candidacy or for Manifestations of Intent to Participate in the elections will not be entertained.
According to the bill, substitution of candidates and nominees shall not be allowed “except in cases of death or disqualification.”
The bill provides that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) “shall have the authority to issue appropriate guidelines on the filing of candidacies, in case the seats originally allocated to the province of Sulu are re-apportioned by the Bangsamoro parliament.”
The BARMM comprises the provinces of Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur and Lanao del Sur; the cities of Marawi, Lamitan and Cotabato; and the 63 villages, now eight towns in North Cotabato dubbed as Special Geographic Area (SGA).
Sulu was initially part of the BARMM until the Supreme Court ruled against its inclusion in a unanimous decision in September 2024. The Court ruled that RA 11054 is constitutional except for the provision that the provinces and cities of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) would vote as one geographical unit.
Sulu was the lone ARMM province that voted against the ratification of RA 11054. It also filed the petition in 2018 to declare the law unconstitutional. Sulu’s Governor Sakur Tan, who was endorsed in May 2024 by the Bangsamoro Grand Coalition to be their choice for the post of Chief Minister, did not withdraw the petition filed before the Supreme Court by his son, Abdusakur Tan III, who was then Governor of Sulu. At the time the petition was filed, Tan was Vice Governor.
SB 2942 provides that the October 2025 polls “shall not be treated as a special election an shall be considered a continuation of the 2025 national and local elections.”
The BARMM is a product of the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace agreement signed by the Philippine government GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on March 27, 2014 after 17 years of peace negotiations.
The CAB’s enabling law, Republic Act 11054, was passed in July 2018 and ratified in January 2019, paving the way for the abolition of the ARMM and the establishment of the BARMM.
The peace agreement and RA 11054 provided for a three-year transition period where the BARMM is governed by the MILF-led 80-member Parliament. The transition period should have ended on June 30, 2022 but was extended to another three years or until June 30, 2025.
The BTA, in a resolution passed on October 22, 2024, requested the House of Representatives and the Senate to extend the transition period from 2025 to 2028.
Both houses of Congress turned down the extension until 2028. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
