COTABATO CITY – The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Parliament has formally requested the Senate and the House of Representatives to postpone the election for members of the regional legislature from 2025 to 2028. The BTA Parliament, in a regular session on Tuesday, approved Resolution No. 505, citing the need for additional time to prepare for a smooth democratic transition in 2028.

This would mark the second postponement of the scheduled elections for the 80-member Parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). In 2021, Congress extended the institutional life of the BTA, which was created in February 2019 after the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) was ratified in a plebiscite.

Floor leader Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba stated that the additional transition time would allow the BTA to address emerging legal, political, and administrative issues. These include the impact of the Supreme Court decision excluding Sulu province from the BARMM, the ongoing challenge before the High Court on the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Electoral Code, and the still unfinished accreditation of regional political parties.

The BARMM leadership has yet to fully address the implications of the Supreme Court ruling, which removed Sulu from the autonomous region's administrative jurisdiction. The BARMM had requested the court to allow it to intervene in the case to file an appeal.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) had advised the regional parliament to reapportion seven parliamentary district seats originally intended for Sulu. However, Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim stated that there was not enough time to complete the reapportionment before the filing for regional candidacies, scheduled for November 4 to 9.

The Comelec declared earlier that it will proceed with the regional elections, meaning only 73 members, instead of 80, will be elected to the Bangsamoro Parliament, taking office on June 30, 2025.