14 new bets on Day 2 of Bangsamoro COC filing — Comelec

The second day of the week-long filing of certificates of candidacy (COC) for the 2025 Bangsamoro elections concluded with 14 aspirants vying for a seat in the 80-man Bangsamoro parliament, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

As of 5 p.m., Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia said two hopefuls from Tawi-Tawi lodged their COCs for the Bangsamoro polls. There were also four were from Basilan, five from Lanao del Sur, one from Maguindanao del Norte, and two from Maguindanao del Sur.

The period for the filing of COCs started on November 4 and will end on November 9, 2024. It was moved from the original schedule of October 1 to October 8 following a Supreme Court (SC) ruling excluding Sulu from the Bangsamoro region.

At least 73 elective positions are up for grabs in  the parliamentary elections, of which 40 are for regional political parties, 25 for parliamentary districts, and eight for sectoral organizations.

Garcia earlier said that unlike those running in the parliamentary districts, sectoral group representatives will not be elected in the 2025 polls.

"Sa halip na magkaroon ng eleksyon, para sa 2025, 'yung iba't ibang sectors ay magkakaroon ng assembly at sa assembly sila pipili kung sino ang kanilang representante para sa parlyamento," he said.

(Instead of including them in the ballot, sectoral groups will hold an assembly where they will elect their representatives in parliament.)

The Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which was enacted into law on July 27, 2018, seeks to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which will have an expanded land and water jurisdiction, fiscal autonomy, and increased share in national government resources, among others.

In 2018, Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan II questioned before the Supreme Court the legality of the BOL, arguing that  ARMM cannot be abolished without amending the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the province of Sulu rejected the ratification of the BOL during the 2019 plebiscite.

BARMM is set to have its first parliamentary elections in May 2025. But with the latest decision, Sulu will not be participating in the upcoming polls. —RF, GMA Integrated News