Reporters ready for pioneering BARMM election coverage

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — News reporters in southern cities and provinces are now bracing for their coverage of the first-ever Oct. 13, 2025 parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro region.

“It is a different kind of electoral exercise, something that shall set a historical precedent. We are excited to cover it,” said Erwin Cabilbigan, manager of Station DXMY in Cotabato City, a broadcast outfit of the Radio Mindanao Network.

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), product of 22 years of peace talks between the government and the MILF, was established in early 2019, replacing the then 27-year less empowered Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and the commander of the Philippine Army, Lt. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, separately told reporters on Thursday, August 14, that they shall provide ample security for journalists who are to cover the electoral exercise.

"Personnel of our units in all provinces and cities in the autonomous region will secure them to the best they can," De Guzman said.

More than 20 print and broadcast journalists and officials of different agencies held in Cotabato City on Tuesday, August 12, a dialogue on the intricacies and ramifications of the October 13 elections in the five provinces and three cities in BARMM.

The activity was organized by Jose Torres, Jr., executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFOMS), the office of Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Carlito Galvez Jr., and the Bangsamoro Information Office under its director, John Ameen Andrew Alonto.

Torres had told reporters present in the forum, among them ranking personnel of different radio stations in Cotabato City, that their foremost concern is the safety of members of BARMM’s media community who shall cover the regional polls in September.

Representatives from the Army’s 6th Infantry Division also attended the forum, where officials of the Commission on Elections based in BARMM, led by their regional director, Ray Sumalipao, talked about their preparations for the first-ever BARMM regional polls.

BARMM's social welfare minister, the lawyer Raissa Jadjurie, explained then how prepared regional officials are to help ensure the credibility of the regional elections. 

Air Force Lt. Col. Eisen Vicente, a representative of the Armed Forces to the PTFOMS, lectured on security procedures in covering the elections in remote areas in the autonomous region that are beset with security issues.

Torres provided participants to the forum with insights on how they can promptly avail of interventions by the PTFOMS if they have security concerns while covering the elections.

“We all need to fuse ranks in protecting members of the media community in this part of the country not just during election periods but all the time,”  Torres said.