MNLF pledges support for clean, safe BARMM elections

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

May 17, 2026 | 5:32pm

COTABATO CITY —Senior leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front assured the public on Sunday that they will help the Commission on Elections ensure clean and safe September 14 parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro region, in line with the group's peace agreement with the government.

The MNLF, which signed a final peace pact with the national government on Sept. 2, 1996, currently has representatives in the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament.

It also fields candidates through its Bangsamoro Party (BAPA Party) in the upcoming elections. The Comelec has allowed 16 regional political parties to take part in the polls. 

The president of the BAPA Party, Regional Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema, chairman of the MNLF’s central committee, and two members of the front in the parliament, Hatimil Hassan and Fhaizal Karon, separately said on Sunday that their now 30-year truce with the national government obliges them to help the police and military maintain law and order in their state-recognized enclaves at all times.

“It is in the context of that peace agreement, brokered by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, that we in the Moro National Liberation Front shall help ensure the safety of electoral exercise in all areas in the Bangsamoro region,” Sema said on Sunday.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr., figurehead of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo and Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman, founder of the Bangsamoro People’s Party that also has members and supporters across BARMM’s five provinces and three cities, separately told reporters that partisan blocs should also encourage members and supporters to adhere to Islamic teachings on the sanctity of electoral exercises and respect for electoral mandates given by voters.

“We have to tap the help of Islamic theologians and school teachers in educating voters in the Bangsamoro region on how they are to exercise their right of suffrage during the September 14 Bangsamoro parliamentary elections, which is for them something so new and so peculiar,” Adiong said.

Supporters and relatives of three candidates for the 80-seat parliament, Zulfikar-Ali Bayam, Ishak Mastura and Bai Sandra Sema, all scions of Moro clans, made headlines on Saturday after announcing over radio stations that they are willing to swear on the Qur’an to abide with the Omnibus Election Code during the campaign season leading to the September 14 polling day.

Bayam and Mastura are members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party. Sema, a former Maguindanao congressional representative, is running for a seat in the BARMM parliament under the banner of the MNLF’s Bangsamoro Party.

The erstwhile congresswoman Sema, who was instrumental in the passage of Bangsamoro Organic Law, BARMM’s charter, has the support of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, according to parliament member Naguib Sinarimbo, chairman of the party's Cotabato City chapter.

Sinarimbo said the Bangsamoro Federalist Party can readily launch a massive information campaign to ensure that voters in far-flung areas of BARMM clearly understand how to exercise their right of suffrage in the September 14 regional polls.

“We don’t have a problem doing that,” said Sinarimbo, chairman of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party’s chapter in Cotabato City, the regional capital of BARMM.