North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza is optimistic that the Congress’ approval to reset the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliament elections to 2025 will boost the peace process in Mindanao.
The House of Representatives approved on the third and final reading on September 15, 2021, House Bill 1012, which is the enabling measure for the postponement of BARMM’s 2022 regional polls. This after the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, Committee on Muslim Affairs, and Special Committee on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity jointly approved the draft substitute bill postponing for three years the first regular BARMM elections.
Last week, the Senate approved a similar measure.
“We in the province who are supportive of the Mindanao peace process can’t thank the House of Representatives and the Senate enough. Resetting the BARMM regional elections to 2025 will boost the peace process,” Mendoza said in a statement.
Mendoza also said that the postponement of the BARMM regional elections will also give the regional government and Malacañang enough time to gradually disarm thousands of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members and reintroduce them to mainstream society.
Mendoza is a staunch supporter of the peace process between the government and MILF saying this is a key to sustaining the province’s growth.
“There are thousands of MILF members in North Cotabato, the key stakeholders to the Mindanao peace process,” she said.
There are 63 barangays in different towns in North Cotabato that are under the Bangsamoro region now after residents voted for the inclusion of their villages into its core territory during a plebiscite in early 2019.
The BARMM, which is chaired by chief minister Hadji Ahod Ebrahim, is a product of 22 years of peace talks between the government and the MILF.
