Transfer of 7 Sulu parliamentary districts mulled – BusinessWorld Online
COTABATO CITY — Members of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament will work out the reallocation to other areas of the seven parliamentary districts in the province of Sulu, which is no longer part of the autonomous region.
The Supreme Court, in a final ruling early this year, took out Sulu from the core territory of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) based on a petition filed by its governor, Hadji Abdusakur Mahail Tan, Sr.
Two members of the BARMM parliament, Jose Iribani Lorena and Omar Yasser Crisostomo Sema, separately explained on Monday that the transfer of the seven districts in Sulu, which had an appointed lawmaker each, has to be accomplished prior to BARMM’s first-ever parliamentary elections in October 2025.
“There are legal complexities related to that. All issues and concerns about that shall be studied carefully,” Mr. Lorena told reporters present in the press briefing at the BARMM capitol in uptown Cotabato City.
Mr. Sema said the setting up of seven new parliamentary districts in other provinces and cities in BARMM shall be based on the real and well validated necessity for ample representation in the regional lawmaking body of the areas each shall cover.
“That can be done. We in the parliament shall work that out,” Mr. Sema said.
The transfer of the seven parliamentary districts in Sulu to other areas in the BARMM is one of the priority thrusts of Chief Minister Abdulrauf Abdul Macacua, which he mentioned in his message to regional lawmakers during a session on Monday.
Mr. Macacua was appointed chief minister of the Bangsamoro regional government by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. just last month, along with several other members of the regional parliament.
He replaced the region’s first-ever appointed chief minister, Ahod Balawag Ebrahim. They are both senior members of the central committee of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.— John Felix M. Unson
