Senate panels back September 2026 BARMM elections

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Three Senate committees on Thursday, February 5, backed the proposal to reset the first regular elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to September, aiming to ensure sufficient preparation time and strengthen peace efforts in the predominantly Muslim region.

The Senate committees on local government, electoral reforms and people’s participation, and finance held a joint hearing on the measure, which reviewed the compliance of Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 86 and related BARMM laws with the Constitution and the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).

BAA 86 is a regional law passed by the BARMM Parliament in January that reconfigures the region’s parliamentary districts. 

The regional law was needed to add seven seats and complete the 80-member BARMM parliament. The seats, originally reserved for Sulu, remained in limbo after the province was excluded in 2024 following a Supreme Court ruling, leaving the regional government to decide their allocation.

The January redistricting law followed a September 2025 SC decision that struck down the region’s two previous districting laws as unconstitutional.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, speaking at the hearing, said the reset would allow the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to complete voter registration and organize political and sectoral parties in advance.

“This will be a special law. We will not synchronize succeeding BARMM parliamentary elections with national and local polls, giving time to focus on the elections in BARMM each time,” Zubiri said.

Liezl Bugtay, senior program manager of Climate Conflict Action Asia (CCAA), stressed the urgency of holding elections the soonest to counter the influence of violent extremist groups among Moro youth.

Since its creation in 2019, the BARMM has yet to hold a single regional parliamentary election. What was meant to be its inaugural vote in 2022 was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and, since 2025, has been postponed thrice.

“If we do not act now, the promises of democracy embedded in this electoral exercise will mean very little to an exasperated Moro youth who, at this very moment, are being attracted and enticed by the quick and violent actions of violent extremists,” Bugtay told senators.

Bugtay added that her group stands with the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) and other civil society organizations in pushing for the earliest possible elections.

Under the proposed measure, the first regular BARMM parliamentary elections — scheduled for the second Monday of September, September 14 — will take precedence over pending local plebiscites, with subsequent parliamentary elections held every three years.

Zubiri said the Senate aims to pass the measure on third and final reading before its break in March.

The development in the Senate came two days after the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms pushed to hold the first BARMM parliamentary elections on the second Monday of September, separately from national and local polls, to avoid shortening the constitutionally mandated three-year term of parliament members and triggering legal challenges. – Rappler.com