COTABATO CITY (May 17, 2026) — Officials of four large Bangsamoro regional political parties assured on Saturday, May 16, to help educate voters on the modalities of the September 14 first ever parliamentary elections in the autonomous region.
The Commission on Elections had permitted 16 partisan blocks to pit favored candidates for the 80-seats in the regional parliament.
Groups of registered voters and officials of cause-oriented organizations in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had earlier complained about the apparent lack of knowledge by barangay folks on the peculiarities of BARMM’s pioneering September 14 parliamentary elections compared to the synchronized local and national elections that are held every three years nationwide.
An incumbent member of the BARMM parliament, the lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo, a ranking official of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, said on Saturday that they can readily embark on a massive information campaign to ensure ample comprehension by voters in far-flung areas in BARMM on how are they to exercise their right of suffrage during 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.
Regional Labor and Employment Minister Muslim Sema, president of the Bangsamoro Party of the Moro National Liberation Front, said information officers of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-BARMM in the five provinces and three cities in the Bangsamoro region can work, along with public school teachers and media entities, in disseminating how voters are to supposed to legitimately cast votes during the September 14 parliamentary elections.
“We have to work hard for voters to become aware of the procedures pertaining to that electoral exercise, something first ever in the autonomous region,” said Sema, chairman of the central committee of the MNLF.
Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr., one of the figureheads of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, and the founder of the Bangsamoro People’s Party, Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman, separately said on Saturday that partisan blocs also ought to encourage members and supporters to adhere to Islamic teachings on the sanctity of electoral exercises and respect for electoral mandates that candidates get from voters.
Supporters of three candidates for the 80-seat parliament, Zulfikar-Ali Bayam, Ishak Mastura and Bai Sandra Sema, all scions of noble ethnic Maguindanaon clans, were quoted in last Saturday’s radio reports as saying that they can even swear over the Qur’an to abide with the Omnibus Election Code in campaigning for each of them during the upcoming campaign season.
Bayam and Mastura are members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party. Sema, a former Maguindanao congressional representative, is aspiring for a seat in the BARMM parliament under the banner of the MNLF’s Bangsamoro Party.
Sema, who was instrumental in the enactment into law by Congress of BARMM’s charter, the Bangsamoro Organic Law, has the support of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, according to Sinarimbo.
Leaders of the Bayam, Mastura and Sema clans in Maguindanao del Norte and in Cotabato City told reporters on Saturday that they shall never use Facebook, or other media platforms, to malign candidates contesting the candidacy of the three aspirants for seats in the 80-member regional lawmaking body.
Lt. Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga City, told reporters that the commitments of leaders of different regional parties for a peaceful parliamentary electoral exercise augurs well with the efforts of the WestMinCom and the Army divisions under its control to help Comelec ensure safe and clean elections on September 14 in BARMM’s five provinces and three cities.
Photo shows the capitol in Cotabato City of the Bangsamoro regional government, now gearing up for the September 14, 2026 parliamentary polls in the five provinces and three cities under its jurisdiction. []
