COTABATO CITY (February 16) — A senior official of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has welcomed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s reported approval of 21 priority legislative measures — including proposals tied to the long-delayed first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
But the MILF says words must now be matched by decisive action.
“This (presidential approval) is a welcomed development…. But we fervently hope that the pronouncement will translate to action,” said Mohagher Iqbal, MILF vice chairman and a key member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Parliament.
Fourth reset looming
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are deliberating separate bills to move the BARMM parliamentary polls from March 30 to September — a proposal included in the 21 priority measures endorsed during the recent Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting in Malacañang.
If approved, the rescheduling would mark the fourth deferment of the region’s first parliamentary election.
The polls were originally set for 2022 but were moved to 2025, then reset again to October 13, 2025. Legal disputes over the redistricting law — Bangsamoro Autonomy Act 77 — further stalled the process after the Supreme Court of the Philippines nullified BAA 77 and BAA 58, which reconfigured the region’s parliamentary districts.
Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, author of one of the rescheduling bills, said the “cycle of disenfranchisement” should finally end with elections pushed through this year.
Strains within the transition
The MILF, which signed the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, currently leads the BARMM’s interim government under the Republic Act No. 11054 or Bangsamoro Organic Law. The law established an MILF-led transition authority through the BTA.
Under the Marcos administration, all 41 MILF nominees were initially appointed to the 80-seat BTA, alongside representatives from the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
However, in March 2025, Malacañang appointed only 35 of the 41 MILF nominees and replaced MILF chairman Ahod Ebrahim as BARMM chief minister — a move Iqbal recalled with visible frustration, saying it shifted the bloc balance inside the regional parliament.
Iqbal also cited what the MILF described as “gerrymandering” in the now-nullified districting law, an issue that deepened tensions within the transition government.
Ready for the ballot
Despite repeated deferments, the MILF — through its political party, the United Bangsamoro Justice Party — says it is prepared to compete once elections are finally held.
“Win or lose,” Iqbal stressed, the party has readied itself for the democratic exercise.
For the MILF leadership, the September timeline represents more than a date change. It is a test of whether the Bangsamoro peace process — forged after decades of armed struggle and formalized in separate accords in 1996 and 2014 — can fully transition from negotiated autonomy to an elected parliamentary government.
As Congress debates another reset, the question facing the Bangsamoro region is no longer just when the elections will happen — but whether this time, they finally will.
