Reassigning Bangsamoro seats ‘problematic’

By Chloe Mari A. Hufana, Reporter

REDISTRIBUTING the Bangsamoro Parliament seats could take time and delay the elections next year after the Supreme Court ruled Sulu is not part of the region, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Thursday.

“Our commitment really is that despite all of this, we will proceed with the elections,” Comelec Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia told a Senate budget hearing. “If they (Bangsamoro) manage to complete their seat redistribution on time, we can always make the adjustments in our resolution.”

“But if we are going to wait, then there could be problems. We have already adjusted the filing of the certificates of candidacy to Nov. 4-9 because we need to finalize the list of candidates by Dec.15,” he added.

This will be the first parliamentary election in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Mr. Garcia said the seven seats originally allotted for Sulu province in the 2025 Bangsamoro parliamentary elections would become vacant after the high court’s ruling.

Under the law, the Bangsamoro Parliament must have 80 seats. Out of the 80, 40 will be nominated by political parties, 32 for parliamentary districts, and eight for sectoral districts selected by assemblies.

After Sulu was excluded, only 25 seats will be allotted for parliamentary districts.

“It is in our honest opinion that we could proceed… with the elections,” he told senators in mixed English and Filipino. “It was not stated that the 80 should be filled.”

Eighty seats for the entire Bangsamoro Parliament were originally up for grabs, seven of which were allotted for Sulu.

But the high court on Sept. 9 ruled that Sulu is not part of the region because the province did not ratify the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) President Ephraim B. Cortez said this could affect the peace process. “Because the government will surely negotiate with Bangsamoro, which has no authority to represent the people of Sulu,” he told BusinessWorld in a Viber chat. 

“This means that the [government] has to negotiate with two entities, the Bangsamoro and Sulu.”

He added that the Philippine government does not have to renegotiate with Sulu since it was part of peace talks.

“But there will be some complications in the implementation of, or compliance with, the terms of the peace agreement,” Mr. Cortez said.

Hansley A. Juliano, a political science professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, said the Bangsamoro election must be held in accordance with the peace agreement.

Sulu faces economic challenges and might find it harder in dealing with neighboring Malaysia, he said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

He also said losing Sulu means the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, with which the government signed a peace deal in 2014, would lose supporters from the province and could make it more vulnerable to competing dynastic and religious groups there.

“If Bangsamoro politics becomes ultimately unstable as well, it may also undermine the stability of the current governance framework there,” he added.

TRANSITION FUND
Meanwhile, Senator Francis N. Tolentino said the government should create a transition fund for Sulu to prevent disruptions in the delivery of basic services.

“Let your creative juices out of your mind to perhaps create a Sulu transition fund, at least for the major agencies and departments,” he told officials from the Budget and Interior and Local Government departments at a finance committee hearing.

He said Interior officials could set aside a small fund from their proposed 2025 budget for Sulu province to help ensure uninterrupted government services. “It’s small, but when you put it all together, it will be a big help,” he said in Filipino.

The Philippines will hold midterm elections for congressmen, mayors, vice mayors and members of city councils on May 12, 2025. Twelve of the 24-member Senate will also be replaced.

Bangsamoro, which is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Tawi-Tawi, was created in 2018 to end decades-long conflict in Mindanao by creating a political body that enjoys more autonomy than the old autonomous region it replaced. — with John Victor D. Ordoñez