Metro Manila, Philippines – The House of Representatives has passed the bill setting the first parliamentary elections of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to Sept. 14.
Two hundred forty-seven House members voted in the affirmative, no negative, and two abstentions for House Bill 8220 during the plenary on Tuesday, March 10.
In its version, the House said the polls will be conducted every three years thereafter.
The lower chamber also proposed that the winners should assume office on Dec. 1.
The Senate passed its bill on March 2. Its version, however, stated elected officials will start their term on Oct. 30 and end on June 11, 2031.
Senators also want the regular elections for the Bangsamoro government to be held on the second Monday of May 2031 and every three years thereafter beginning that year, synchronizing with the national and local polls.
The House has delegated members to meet senators in a bicameral conference committee to finalize the measure before bringing it to the table of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Think tank warns vs. repeated delays of BARMM polls
This was the fourth time parliamentary elections were reset since the creation of the BARMM in 2019.
The legislation setting the election date is a “vital step” to fulfill the promise of the Bangsamoro Organic Law for the region’s aspirations for a “peaceful and self-governing homeland,” the interim parliament earlier said.
In a report released on Tuesday, the International Crisis Group warned that the repeated delays of the polls pose increasing risks in the peace process.
“Delaying the polls until 2028 might offer the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) time to regroup, but conversely, internal divisions could also linger and widen,” the global think tank said.
“They might spill into national politics, with rival MILF leaders backing different presidential candidates after Marcos’s term ends. Signs that the frictions might turn violent are starting to show,” it said.
It urged Congress to swiftly enact their proposed September election date.
“Doing so would prevent further erosion of the regional administration’s legitimacy on the ground, avert the risk of widening divisions within the MILF, and bring closure to the political track of the peace process,” read the group’s report.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) postponed the March 30 elections as “election timelines are already too proximate” with the delay in the region’s new redistricting law.
Parliamentary election was originally set for May 2022 but moved to May 2025 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was then rescheduled to October 2025 after the Supreme Court declared Sulu not part of the BARMM, prompting the reallocation of the province’s seven parliamentary seats.
But magistrates ruled that the redistricting law was unconstitutional and set a deadline for the determination of the parliamentary districts and the actual conduct of the polls.
In postponing the March elections, the Comelec said a new date should be fixed by law.
The first regular parliament will be composed of 80 members, 40 political party representatives, 32 district representatives, and eight sectoral representatives.
