Regional parties welcome peace office neutrality ahead of BARMM polls

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May 28, 2026 | 7:13pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Officials of regional political parties took turns appreciating on Thursday, May 28, the assurance of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity of its neutrality on the September 14 parliamentary polls in the Bangsamoro region.

Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslim Sema, president of the Bangsamoro Party of the Moro National Liberation Front, told reporters on Thursday that he and other officials of their bloc were elated with such an announcement by Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento of OPAPRU last week.

“We in the Bangsamoro Party wants this first ever parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro region held without any political interference from outside forces. We are thankful to him for that commitment,” Sema, chairman of the MNLF’s central committee, said.

OPAPRU is helping the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. oversee its overtures with southern Moro communities.

The MNLF’s Bangsamoro Party has pitted candidates for the 80-seat BARMM parliament. The MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have separate peace agreements with the national government. Both fronts have representatives in the region's lawmaking body, presently composed of lawmakers appointed by President Marcos.

The regional office in BARMM of the Commission on Elections had permitted 16 regional parties to participate in the September 14 parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The now seven-year BARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, the seat of the BARMM government.

A member of the parliament, the lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, who is senior official and spokesperson of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, said they are grateful to Sarmiento for having emphasized, during a press forum in Metro Manila last week, the OPAPRU’s stand on the upcoming electoral exercise.

Sinarimbo said their party, whose members now include more than 50 of the 116 municipal mayors in BARMM, shall reciprocate by committing to Sarmiento and to all Comelec officials in the autonomous region their support in helping ensure peaceful and honest regional elections on September 14.

“We in our party shall do that to the best we can,” said Sinarimbo, chairman of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party’s Cotabato City chapter.

Two provincial governors, Mamintal Adiong Jr. in Lanao del Sur and Mujiv Hataman in Basilan had separately told reporters that they are looking forward to a good outcome of BARMM’s September 14 regional parliamentary elections, the first since the Bangsamoro autonomous region was established in 2019, a product of 22 years of peace talks between the government and the MILF.

The BARMM replaced in 2019 the then 27-year less empowered Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Hataman is the founder and current figurehead of the Bangsamoro People’s Party in Basilan. Adiong is an official of BARMM’s pioneer and oldest regional party, the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo. Both parties, like the MNLF’s Bangsamoro Party and the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, also have thousands of documented members across the autonomous region.

“The assurance of the highest official of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity of not interfering with the upcoming regional elections is, for us in the Bangsamoro People’s Party, something so good,” said Hataman, who had served as two-term regional governor of the now defunct ARMM.