COTABATO CITY(December 12) — Residents of Lanao del Sur and Marawi City are urging the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) to pass a “pro-people” districting law that respects community culture and the legally required contiguity of areas — not the interests of politicians.
More than 300 residents turned up at Sunday’s joint committee hearing in Marawi City, some holding placards to protest alleged gerrymandering in proposed Parliament districts for the province’s 39 towns and Marawi City.
The demands come months after the Supreme Court struck down the configuration of 32 districts under Bangsamoro Autonomy Act 77 over constitutional flaws — including gerrymandering — and ordered the BTA to craft a new districting law before Parliament elections can be held by March 31, 2026.
Six districting bills are currently under scrutiny in field hearings across the region. Five of them would create nine districts for Lanao del Sur, differing only in the clustering of areas representing the province’s 1.36 million Maranao residents.
At the Marawi hearing, local officials, traditional leaders, women and youth groups, and civil society organizations delivered a unified message: districting must not serve political agendas.
Some Maranao voters also took to social media to demand two Parliament seats for Marawi City, arguing its population is three times larger than that of the Special Geographic Area, which is proposed to have two districts.
Residents likewise backed the conduct of the March 2026 polls, which would finally usher in an elected Bangsamoro Parliament after years of governance by the 80-member, presidentially appointed BTA.
BTA Deputy Speaker Amenodin Sumagayan, who presided over the hearing, vowed to reflect public sentiment in the final measure. Interim Parliament Floor Leader Jet Lim reaffirmed the leadership’s commitment to pass the districting bill within December.
Under the Bangsamoro Electoral Code, each district must have at least 100,000 residents and be contiguous “as far as practicable.”
Field hearings continue this week in Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur.
