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John Unson - Philstar.com
August 15, 2026 | 4:17pm
Bangsamoro parliament member Tomanda Antok helps their chief minister, Abdulrauf Macacua, wear a jacket bearing a seal of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party to cap off his assumption as its chairman on Saturday, August 15, 2026.
Philstar.com / John Unson
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is now an official candidate for a seat in the BARMM parliament of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, whose leadership he assumed in a symbolic rite in his hometown on Saturday, August 15.
The event, held on Saturday morning at Barangay Gambar in Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao del Norte, was witnessed by thousands of members and supporters of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, local executives and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front from across the province and from different towns in Maguindanao del Sur.
Bangsamoro parliament member Tomando Antok, chairman of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, relinquished his post to BARMM Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua after he was sworn in as a party member by its officials, in the presence of local executives from different provinces and cities in the autonomous region.
Macacua filed, via an emissary, at the regional office of the Commission on Elections in Cotabato City last May 7 his candidacy, as an independent candidate, for a seat in one of the parliamentary districts covering adjoining barangays in Cotabato City and in Maguindanao del Norte.
The Comelec, the military’s Western Mindanao Command and the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region are all set for the September 14 first ever parliamentary polls in BARMM.
More than half of the 116 town mayors in BARMM’s Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi provinces had, in recent months, bolted from the United Bangsamoro Justice Party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and joined the Bangsamoro Federalist Party.
Two city mayors in BARMM, Roderick Furigay of Lamitan and Bruce Mabatalao of Cotabato City, the region's capital, are also now members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party.
Macacua, now the party’s chairman, is overseeing all ministries and support agencies under the BARMM government and is also figurehead of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament.
“I will do my best to make the Bangsamoro Federalist Party become an effective facet for spreading peace, for fostering cultural and interfaith solidarity and political tolerance and understanding among the Muslim, Christian and the indigenous communities in the Bangsamoro region,” Macacua told reporters after he took oath as regional chairman of the party.
The Comelec had permitted the participation in the September 14 BARMM elections of more than 10 regional parties, three of which, the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, the Bangsamoro Party of the Moro National Liberation Front led by Regional Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema and the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, are popular for being well-organized and for having thousands of members and supporters in the autonomous region.
BARMM parliament member Naguib Sinarimbo, spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, said they are thankful to the local executives and traditional leaders of the Muslim, Christian and indigenous non-Moro communities who attended the party’s activity on Saturday in Barangay Gambar.
"Chief Minister Macacua is now the top leader of our party,” said the lawyer Sinarimbo, deputy floor leader of the BARMM parliament and chapter chairman for Cotabato City of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party.
