16 regional parties prepare for BARMM polls

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Sixteen regional parties are to pit candidates for the first-ever September 14 regional parliamentary polls in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, officials of the Commission on Elections in BARMM announced on Wednesday, April 8.

Among the 16 parties are the newly-launched Bangsamoro Federalist Party, which has thousands of members and followers, among them incumbent local executives, across BARMM’s five provinces, and the equally large and influential Bangsamoro Party of the Moro National Liberation Front and the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo.

The United Bangsamoro Justice Party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front also has candidates for seats in the now six-year 80-seat BARMM parliament, presently occupied by lawmakers appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Thousands of Muslim and Christian supporters, among them ethnic non-Moro Teduray tribespeople, converged along the access routes to the 32-hectare BARMM compound in uptown Cotabato City on Tuesday to show support for the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, whose officials filed then at the Comelec’s regional office its petition to participate in the upcoming September 14 regional elections.

No fewer than 200 local executives, barangay and traditional Moro and Christian community leaders from different BARMM provinces also appeared at the Bangsamoro regional government compound to show that they are politically-aligned with the Bangsamoro Federalist Party.

Among the senior officials of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party are the incumbent BARMM parliament members Naguib Sinarimbo and Tumanda Antok, who, along with another regional lawmaker, Michael Midtimbang, submitted to the lawyer Ray Sumalipao, regional director of Comelec, their petition for the poll body’s imprimatur for their bloc to participate in the regional electoral exercise.

Sinarimbo told reporters, during a press briefing after their engagement with BARMM Comelec officials on Tuesday, that members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party in all four corners of BARMM recognize Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua as figurehead of the Bangsamoro parliament and of all the ministries and support agencies of the Bangsamoro government.

“Our favored bet for chief minister of the region, to become figurehead of the parliament, if the elections pushes through as scheduled, is our current most senior official, Chief Minister Macacua, if he would aspire for a seat in the parliament to represent his district to the region’s lawmaking body,” the lawyer Sinarimbo, Bangsamoro Federalist Party's Cotabato City chapter president.

The MNLF’s Bangsamoro Party, led by senior members of the front, among them BARMM Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, was the first to have petitioned for Comelec’s permission to participate in the upcoming BARMM elections.

The Bangsamoro Party is popular for its policy of not allowing members to attack or criticize abusively, via the mainstream media, or through Facebook, the political platforms of other regional parties in the autonomous region.

The MNLF group, led by BARMM parliament member Abdulkarim Misuari, also has its Mahardika Party that now has favored bets for the regional parliament.