BARMM parties cooperate to ensure peaceful regional polls

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April 19, 2026 | 5:54pm

COTABATO CITY — Officials of four of the 16 parties now preparing for the September 14 Bangsamoro parliamentary polls have cautioned members and supporters against maligning any of the regional political blocs and the endorsed candidates of each for seats in the region’s lawmaking body.

There have been exchanges on Facebook over the past two weeks involving heated tirades among some officials belonging to certain parties, after the regional office of the Commission on Elections allowed the 16 partisan blocs to field candidates for the region’s 80-seat parliament in the September 14 elections.

Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Bangsamoro People’s Party, Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. of Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo; Bangsamoro Regional Employment Minister Muslimin Sema of the Bangsamoro Party; and Naguib Sinarimbo of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party separately urged members of their respective parties on Sunday, April 19, not to engage in malicious arguments with those in other political groups.

Hataman said they will not hesitate to sanction any member of the Bangsamoro People’s Party found to have maliciously besmirched any party or aspirant for a parliamentary seat on Facebook or any other media platform.

“We are for peaceful and orderly elections. We don’t want conflicts among members of different regional political parties,” Hataman said.

Sema, who is chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, said they have directed all members of the Bangsamoro Party, many of whom are MNLF members, to refrain from making derogatory statements against officials of the 15 other regional parties and their candidates now gearing up for the September 14 inaugural Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao parliamentary polls.

“We will not gain anything from such provocative activities that are, for us, in the Bangsamoro Party, against our principles meant to foster co-existence and solidarity among Muslims, Christians and the indigenous communities in the Bangsamoro region,” Sema said.

The MNLF’s Bangsamoro Party, also known as the “Bapa Party,” has members in all five provinces and three cities of the BARMM.

“MNLF leaders in the provinces and cities in the Bangsamoro region will take immediate action against members of our party, or supporters, who shall violate that policy,” Sema said.

Sinarimbo, an appointed member of the BARMM parliament, and Adiong, now in his second term as Lanao del Sur governor, separately said on Sunday that they have encouraged members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party and Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, respectively, not to engage in political mudslinging to prevent animosity among themselves and members of other regional parties.

Brig. Gen. Jaysen De Guzman, director of the Police Regional Office–Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, and Army Lt. Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, separately told reporters that they appreciate the efforts of BARMM regional political parties to help ensure peaceful parliamentary polls in the autonomous region on September 14.

The September 14 parliamentary polls will be the first in BARMM since its creation in 2019, replacing the 27-year-old, less empowered Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The current members of the Bangsamoro parliament are serving in an interim capacity through appointments issued by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.