92 petitions for inclusion in BARMM await Comelec nod

COTABATO CITY – Petitions from 92 local government units (LGUs), particularly barangays, seeking inclusion in the proposed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are awaiting decision by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), according to a poll official.

Lawyer Ray Sumalipao, regional elections director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said the 92 petitions were filed separately last month by LGUs in Iligan City, Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Sibugay and other areas outside the prescribed BARMM territory.

Republic Act (RA) 11054, or the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), seeks the inclusion in BARMM of areas currently included in the (ARMM), namely Marawi and Lamitan cities, the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and TawiTawi; the cities of Cotabato and Isabela (in Basilan); six towns in Lanao del Norte; and 39 villages in six North Cotabato towns.

A plebiscite is set on January 21, 2019, in the areas where BARMM will be established.

Each of the 92 petitions was signed by at least 10 percent of resident-voters, whose identities will be verified by the Comelec, according to Sumalipao’s briefing at a media forum on BOL here last Thursday.

If the petitions are found legitimate after the validation process, the Comelec en banc will set a separate campaign period and a plebiscite day among voters in host-cities and provinces of the petitioners, Sumalipao said.

He said a special plebiscite will be held sometime in February next year following a separate campaign period.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP) as well as other officials present at Thursday’s forum here welcomed Sumalipao’s report as “symptom of public pulse” in favor of the proposed BARMM governance.

MILF Vice Chairman Mohagher Iqbal, head of the front’s peace implementing body, and Bangasamoro Transition Commission members Jose Lorena and Maisara Latip were hopeful that the electorate within the proposed BARMM territory will take a cue from the voluntary aspiration of neighboring communities via the 92 petitions.