PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. has certified as urgent a bill postponing elections in the southern region of Bangsamoro, according to his office.
Malacañang made the confirmation as the two chambers of Congress work on different versions of the postponement bill.
“This is confirmed,” Presidential Communications Office Acting Secretary Cesar B. Chavez told reporters when asked about Senate President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero’s disclosure of the move.
The Senate on Jan. 28 approved on second reading a bill that would reschedule the parliamentary elections of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to October 2025 from May of the same year.
The House of Representatives, on the other hand, passed its version last December, seeking to move the BARMM elections to May 2026.
While the Senate bill separates BARMM’s first regular elections from the May midterm elections, it will synchronize succeeding elections with the Philippines’ national and local elections.
If the Senate bill is passed on final reading, a bicameral committee will decide the final schedule of the BARMM polls.
Calls for the postponement of the first-ever parliamentary elections in one of the Philippines’ poorest regions have been made after a Supreme Court decision excluding Sulu province from BARMM.
Mr. Marcos in November said his administration was studying postponement proposals, citing the “unintended consequence” of the court’s decision.
Replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, BARMM was inaugurated in 2019 following a peace negotiation between Moro separatists and the Philippine government in 2014 that paved the way for an organic law in 2018.
The first-ever parliament election in the region was originally set for May 2022 but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and the failure to come up with an electoral code. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza
