Duterte postpones Bangsamoro region polls to 2025

President Rodrigo Duterte has signed the law postponing the May 2022 elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to May 2025.

A photo of the law signed by the President was posted on the Bangsamoro Government's official Facebook page on Friday.

"Under the law, the first parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro region shall be held and synchronized with the 2025 national elections," the post's caption read.

The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) will oversee the region until the May 2025 midterm polls.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque later confirmed this and released the copy of the new law which also allows President Duterte to appoint 80 new members of the BTA until the May 2025 polls or until their successors are elected.

The ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law in February 2019 via a plebiscite paved the way for the creation of the BARMM and abolished the old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

BARMM includes Cotabato City, 63 barangays in the municipalities of  Aleosan, Carmen, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pigkawayan and Pikit in North Cotabato.

It has expanded land and water jurisdiction, fiscal autonomy, increased share in national government resources, among others. — KBK/RSJ, GMA News