NEWS
6December
In Photo-Members of the Bangsamoro Parliament
The passage of a new districting law is in the offing as the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) vowed to pass it this month.
BTA Passing new districting law in the offing
- Dec 6, 2025
- Al Iskandar, Luwaran
- HITS: 1462
Under the proposed law, the BTA will apportion the 32 districts across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) so that the first regular elections can finally be held early next year.
In a statement, BTA Floor Leader Jet Lim said, “The Parliament is committed to an inclusive, transparent, and legally compliant districting process and aims to complete and pass the districting law by December 2025.
According to a Mindanews report, Monday, there are only 12 session days in December: 1 to 4, 8 to 11, and 15-18.
Five Parliamentary Bills on districting are pending with the Committees on Rules and Local Governments. Another bill has been filed specifically only for the proposed two districts of the Special Geographic Area (SGA), Mindanews report said.
An initial consultation was done in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, on November 6. Consultations in the SGA, Maguindanao del Sur, and Basilan will be held on December 4 and December 7 in Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, and Cotabato City, the report said.
“The BTA Parliament encourages stakeholders and the general public to actively participate in the ongoing consultations to help shape a fair, representative, and legally sound parliamentary districting system,” Lim said.
The first Bangsamoro election was scheduled for May 9, 2022 but was moved to May 12, 2025 and rescheduled again to October 13, 2025, but the October polls, however, did not push through because the Supreme Court on September 30 declared the two previous districting laws unconstitutional, the report said.
The Court directed the BTA to “immediately undertake by October 30, 2025 at the latest” the passage of a new law for the 32 parliamentary district seats “in strict compliance with the priorities and requirements provided to the Bangsamoro Organic Law, as well as the criteria laid down in this decision,” Mindanews report said.
It also urged Congress to “promptly enact a law that would reschedule the BARMM Parliamentary Elections … as much as practicable, not later than March 31, 2026,”but Congress has not set the date of the election as both the House of Representatives and the Senate are waiting for the BTA’s new districting law.
The Supreme Court in its decision also said that immediately after the passage of the new districting law, Comelec has to “proceed with its preparations and conduct the elections in compliance (with Section 5 of the Voter’s Registration Act) not later than March 31, 2026.”
But Congress has yet to set the date of the 1st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections.
Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal, concurrent chair of the Peace Implementing Panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said he hopes “this is the last delay” in holding the elections., as he is already ashamed to ask for extension.
“When you are elected by the people, you have more legitimacy. An appointed authority is less powerful,” he said.
The BARMM is a product of the peace agreement signed by government and the MILF on March 27, 2014, Mindanews report said.
Time in Cotabato
Most Read
