More Basilan residents join Bangsamoro Federalist Party

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Hundreds more of Muslim and Christian community leaders in Basilan were sworn in as members of the newly-established Bangsamoro Federalist Party during a symbolic rite in Lamitan City in the province on Saturday, May 23.

The Bangsamoro Federalist Party is one of the 16 regional political parties that the Commission on Elections had permitted to pit candidates during the September 14 first-ever parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Radio reports on Sunday stated that the chairman of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, BARMM parliament member Tomanda Antok, officiated the oathtaking of the barangay officials, municipal councilors and traditional Yakan, Tausug and Sama community leaders during a big gathering in the gymnasium of the Lamitan City government on Saturday morning.

The mayor of Lamitan City, Roderick Furigay, and 10 of the 11 municipal mayors in Basilan, one of the five provinces in BARMM, had pledged political loyalty to the Bangsamoro Federalist Party during a caucus in Zamboanga City a week before. Ranking leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Basilan, including the ethnic Yakan member of the 80-seat BARMM parliament, Dan Asnawie, also took oath as members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party then.

“We are grateful to the local executives in Basilan and the community leaders in the province for the cordiality extended to our delegates from Cotabato City and nearby areas in Central Mindanao who participated in our party’s activity in Lamitan City,” Parliament member Naguib Sinarimbo, chairman of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party’s chapter in Cotabato City, the regional capital of the Bangsamoro region.  

Bangsamoro Federalist Party officials have consistently been asserting, in radio interviews and in press conferences, that their group is not hostile to the big and influential Bangsamoro People’s Party, led by its founder, Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman, also known for his non-antagonistic attitude towards other regional political parties.

Hataman even hosted a simple banquet at the Basilan provincial capitol for the Bangsamoro Federalist Party officials from Cotabato City who led Saturday's event in Lamitan City. 

The new members in Basilan of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party and their mayors together promised, during their gathering in Lamitan City, to adhere to their party’s policy against using Facebook, or any mainstream media outfit, all candidates for the parliament of their other Comelec-accredited regional partisan blocs.