Voters in 4 Bangsamoro towns report political harassment

September 5, 2026 | 5:21pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Voters in four towns in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area are ranting about wanton intimidation by a political camp that has a favored candidate for the 80-seat parliament of the autonomous region during the September 14 regional polls.

The Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area covers eight newly-established towns under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, but are inside Cotabato, one of the four provinces in Administrative Region 12.

Villagers in the 2nd district of the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area told reporters on Saturday, September 5, that their community leaders were summoned, one after another, by a candidate and campaigners and warned of "serious repercussions" if they support any of the four other aspirants for the parliamentary seat covering the area during the BARMM elections on September 14.

Among those who had complained of harassment are helpless elderly beneficiaries of the recent joint medical outreach missions of the Ministry of Health-BARMM, the office of Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza and local executives in the four towns in the area, Ligawasan, Old Kaabacan, Kapalawan and Maledigao.  

“Our community leaders were summoned by that political camp and warned of the bad repercussions of their being identified with candidates contesting the bid of their favored candidate for the parliamentary seat in our parliamentary district,” said a 70-year-old ethnic Maguindanaon man who had undergone cataract surgery facilitated early this year by the MoH-BARMM.

Residents of the 2nd district in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area had told reporters that they want the director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, Brig. Gen. Christopher Abecia, and Army Brig. Gen. Ricky Bunayog, acting commander of the 6th Infantry Division, will look into the issue.

They also urged the director of the Commission on Elections for BARMM, the lawyer Ray Sumalipao, to focus attention on their complaint.

"We are hoping for the deployment of more soldiers and policemen in our district to prevent that group from possibly cheating during the actual polling day," a 59-year-old Moro datu said.

Two Islamic missionaries, who requested anonymity, said among those subjected to harassment by what is from them a “shrewd” partisan bloc in the 2nd district of the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area are missionaries in Islamic schools in their barangays identified with a more popular candidate for the BARMM parliament and had supported the medical missions of the MoH-BARMM in recent months.

The Army’s 10th Infantry Division based in Mawab, Davao del Oro dispatched its 28th Infantry Battalion last July to the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area to help the 602nd Infantry Brigade of the 6th Infantry Division secure polling sites in its eight municipalities during the September 14 BARMM elections.

The 2nd district in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area is under the joint jurisdiction of 6th ID's 602nd Infantry Brigade and police units under PRO-BAR.