Lanao del Norte solons want to postpone Bangsamoro polls

Lanao del Norte lawmakers Sittie Aminah Dimaporo and Khalid Dimaporo are seeking to postpone the elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

The Dimaporo siblings made the proposal under their House Bill 4213 and 4220 seeking to amend the Bangsamoro Organic law that created the autonomous region in 2019.

Sittie's House Bill 4213 seeks to postpone the first ever BARMM polls slated in 2025 to 2028, while Khalid wants to reset it to 2031.

"This bill aims to give the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) sufficient time to propose, prepare, and legislate significant measures and lay  foundation to the development and preservation of long-lasting peace in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region," Sittie said in her bill's explanatory note.

Khalid said that postponing the BARMM polls until 2031 would give the BTA ample time to "legislate the needed Codes and fulfill their promises to the Bangsamoro people."

He also said that his bill "aims to realize the compliance to the Annex on Normalization under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro for the reintegration of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants to mainstream society."

BTA is composed of the interim leaders of the BARMM whose term was supposed to end on June 30, 2022 as provided under the 2019 Bangsamoro Organic law.

In October last year, a law was enacted postponing the May 2022 elections in BARMM to May 2025.

Both bills filed by the Dimaporos allow the sitting President to appoint members of the BTA until an election is held.

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

BARMM includes Basilan (except Isabela City), Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Cotabato City, as well as 63 barangays in the municipalities of  Aleosan, Carmen, Kabacan, Midsayap, Pigkawayan and Pikit in North Cotabato province. Lanao del Norte, the province represented by the Dimaporos in Congress, is not included in the BARMM.

The 2019 law also expanded land and water jurisdiction, fiscal autonomy, increased share in national government resources of the region, among others.—LDF, GMA News