BARMM partisans detest use of social media for hostile political messaging

COTABATO CITY — Leaders of three regional political parties in the Bangsamoro region cautioned their members against using social media for hostile political commentaries to avoid escalating animosity among rival candidates for local elective positions.

The three parties—Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo (SIAP), the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and the Bangsamoro Party (BAPA) of the Moro National Liberation Front, each have over 500,000 documented members and supporters in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

SIAP and UBJP officials separately announced their candidates for elective posts in Cotabato City and the adjoining provinces of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro region. The proclamations took place in tightly-secured large gatherings at different venues in Cotabato City last week.

After their proclamation rallies, officials from SIAP, including its Cotabato City chapter figurehead, lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, and UBJP's Abdulrauf Macacua, the chief minister of BARMM, separately asked reporters to help spread their appeals to party members. They urged them to avoid using Facebook for mudslinging and instead use the platform to highlight the qualifications of their endorsed candidates.

Besides being a senior UBJP official and BARMM's chief minister, Macacua also leads the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces. Earlier, he had warned his members against using social media to attack candidates from other regional parties, threatening to have them censured or even expelled from the front if they used Facebook for senseless political tirades.

Surprisingly, SIAP officials, led by Sinarimbo, posted cordial messages on Facebook welcoming UBJP’s candidates for elective posts in Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte provinces a day before their proclamation rally at a state university campus in Cotabato City.

“Politics must not set permanent barriers among us. It must foster oneness among us in the context of oneness in our desire for good governance, peace and development in the Bangsamoro homeland,” Sinarimbo told reporters via text message on Tuesday, April 8.

Radio reports on Tuesday from Central Mindanao said that regional officials of SIAP based in Lanao del Sur, including Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., were notably sober and calm in their campaign speeches during a proclamation rally on Monday, April 7, in Lumbayanague town. The rally was attended by candidates running for elective positions in the province's second district.

Adiong reportedly urged SIAP members and supporters to speak calmly and sensibly during their sorties and to avoid adversarial rhetoric that could deepen the partisan divides within the Maranao communities of Lanao del Sur. 

None of the candidates at the UBJP sortie in Cotabato City last week spoke ill of their rivals in SIAP, whose regional president is Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mohammad Rakiin Adiong.

The MILF's UBJP is an ally of the MNLF’s BAPA Party, which is led by Bangsamoro Labor Minister Muslimin Sema, also the chairman of the central committee of the MNLF.

The allied UBJP and BAPA have common candidates for various positions across BARMM's territory, which includes the provinces of Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi, as well as the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.

Sema told reporters in a text message on Tuesday that BAPA members across all provinces and cities in the Bangsamoro region had been instructed to follow Islamic principles promoting peaceful dialogue. He emphasized the importance of fostering political, religious, and cultural solidarity within local communities during their campaign activities for their candidates.

“Politics is just like a `passing thing’ and should not wedge the unity of the Moro communities. Our ancestors were solidly together in fighting the Spaniards and the Americans who came to colonize them and, subsequently, the Japanese forces that came during the second world war. Their solidarity then must inspire us in addressing underdevelopment in Moro areas through unity in governance,” Sema said.