COTABATO CITY — More than half of the 36 mayors in Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte have joined the Bangsamoro Federalist Party that has candidates for the autonomous region’s first parliamentary elections on Sept. 14 this year.

Besides the mayors, a number of municipal councilors, vice-mayors and traditional Moro leaders from across Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte also attended the separate caucuses of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party on Sunday, where officials talked about its peace and development initiatives for Muslim, Christian and non-Moro indigenous communities in both provinces.

The new members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party took oath and pledged to help push its peace and development agenda forward during the two gatherings, one held in Talayan, Maguindanao del Sur and the other in Cotabato City, the capital of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

The party is one of more than 10 political blocs that the regional office of the Commission on Elections in Cotabato City permitted to participate in the upcoming polls.

Two ranking officials of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, Tomanda D. Antok and Naguib A. Sinarimbo, both current members of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, together led the activities in Talayan and in Cotabato City.

“We shall also be reaching out to leaders in other provinces and cities in the autonomous region who had signified intention to join the Bangsamoro Federalist Party,” Mr. Sinarimbo told reporters on the sideline of their activity at the Al-Nor Complex in Cotabato City on Sunday afternoon. — John Felix M. Unson

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