@BANGSAMOROGOVT

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has accredited at least 21 sectoral organizations to participate in the first-ever regular parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Based on the latest records released on Thursday, the poll body’s en banc has officially granted the registration of these entities, which represent diverse interests including women, youth, the Ulama, and traditional leaders.

Among the accredited groups are various wings of the BARMM Grand Coalition and the Royal House of the Sultanate of Marawi, according to documents the Comelec shared with reporters.

The poll body also approved the withdrawal of the application filed by the Settler Organization for Peace and Development.

The first regular parliamentary elections in the region are scheduled to take place on Sept. 14, following the signing of Republic Act No. 12317 which reset the polls from their original 2025 schedule.

Meanwhile, different regional political parties in the Bangsamoro region held extensive caucuses in different venues on Wednesday in preparation for the Sept. 14 parliamentary polls in the autonomous region.

The simultaneous events were capped off with commitments of support by officials of the parties for efforts aiming to foster peace and sustainable development in the core territory of the BARMM.

Officials of the Bangsamoro Party of the Moro National Liberation Front, led by Muslimin G. Sema, who is BARMM’s Labor minister, separately urged thousands of followers to continue supporting the joint peace overtures of the government and the southern Moro communities.

Omar Yasser C. Sema, an appointed member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament and now a candidate for a seat in the lawmaking body, told their supporters then that unlike some southern partisan blocs, the Bangsamoro Party, or the BAPA Party, has members from the region’s Sama, Tausug, Maranao, Maguindanaon, Iranun, Yakan and indigenous non-Moro Teduray communities.

“Our party is composed of all the tribes in the Bangsamoro region. We can’t call our party Bangsamoro Party if its members are only from one tribe in the autonomous region. Our party is one with a culturally pluralistic set-up.  Peace and development in the Bangsamoro region can only be achieved if we stand as one, help each other work that out,” he said.

Leaders of two other large blocs, the Bangsamoro Federalist Party and the Raayat Democratic Party that also have candidates for the parliament, also assured their supporters of their focus on fostering lasting peace.

Two candidates of the Raayat Democratic Party, Baintan A. Ampatuan and Jose I. Lorena, separately said all of them in their party will religiously adhere to election laws meant to ensure peaceful and honest elections.

Two candidates of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, Ishak O. Mastura and Naguib G. Sinarimbo, separately told reporters that they have cautioned supporters of their party against maligning their rivals in other parties.

“Hostile politics will not do us any good. We will not profit from it. We want clean and peaceful regional parliamentary elections on Sept. 14,” Mr. Mastura said.

Members and officials of the pioneer regional political party in BARMM, the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, which has more than 500,000 documented supporters across the autonomous region, converged on Tuesday in Marawi City, where its leaders, among them Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal A. Adiong, Jr. took turns assuring reporters that they are for a peaceful regional polls. More than 30 of the 39 mayors in Lanao del Sur belong to the Adiong-led SIAP party.

Cotabato City Mayor Bruce C. Matabalao also called for support for the United Bangsamoro Justice Party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, under whose banner he was elected in 2022 and, subsequently, reelected as its candidate during last year’s May 12 local elections. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking and John Felix M. Unson

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