Moon sighting fails; Eid’l Fitr moved to March 21 in Bangsamoro

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

March 20, 2026 | 3:46pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Islamic theologians in the Bangsamoro region failed to see the new moon during a traditional moon sighting rite at about dusk Thursday, the supposed basis for declaring March 20 as Eid’l Fitr holiday, which they set to March 21 instead.

Sheik Marhan Burhan, executive director of the Darul-Iftah in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, told reporters on Thursday night that they have declared Saturday, March 21, as Eid’l Fit’r holiday in BARMM, after he and his fellow clerics failed to see the new moon, using large long-range telescopes, that would have marked the supposed March 20 culmination of the Ramadan.

The moon sighting activity also involved BARMM's chief minister, Abdulrauf Macacua, and his subordinate-officials from their regional capitol in Cotabato City.

The Darul-Iftah, an advisory group supporting the religious programs of the Bangsamoro regional government, is composed of clerics from the five provinces and three cities in the autonomous region, some of them graduates of Islamic schools in the Middle East, in Muslim states in North Africa, in Malaysia and in Indonesia.

There are Muslim communities in parts of BARMM that performed the Eid’l Fit’r open-field congregational prayer rites on Friday morning, ahead of the March 21 schedule set by the Darul-Iftah.

Macacua, who was with members of the Darul-Iftah during Thursday's moon sighting activity at one side of the Timako Hill in west of Cotabato City, immediately ordered then the officials of their agencies in the Bangsamoro region’s five provinces and three cities to announce that March 21 is the Eid’l Fit’r holiday in BARMM, not March 20 as earlier thought.

The Eid’l Fitr signals the end of Ramadan, a holy month in Islam, and the start of Shawwal in the lunar-based Hijrah calendar. Physically fit Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the Ramadan that lasts for one lunar cycle, or from between 28 to 30 days, as a religious obligation. They focus on reparations for wrongdoings and reconciliation with adversaries during the period.

Macacua said he is grateful to the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division covering Central Mindanao and all other units of the military's Western Mindanao Command in Basilan, Lanao del Sur and in Tawi-Tawi for cooperating in guarding the mosques where BARMM residents performed their worship rites during the Ramadan.

He also lauded Mayor Bruce Matabalao and the Cotabato City Police Office, under Col. Jibin Bongcayao, for jointly overseeing the Ramadan security efforts in Cotabato City, the administrative capital of BARMM.

“We also appreciate the roles of other city, municipal and provincial officials in the Bangsamoro region for cooperating with the efforts of our regional government, the police and the military in keeping peace in the region during the Ramadan,” Macacua said.

Three non-Muslim local executives, Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City in Basilan, Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. and Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, governors of South Cotabato and Cotabato provinces in Region 12, respectively, separately relayed on Friday to their Muslim constituents and to residents of the Bangsamoro region their Eid’l Fitr greetings via media outfits in Central Mindanao and in BARMM's three component-cities, Marawi, Lamitan and Cotabato.

“We join our Muslim constituents in their Eid’l Fitr celebration, which is a very important religious holiday in Islam,” said Mendoza, chairperson of the Regional Peace and Order Council 12 covering four provinces and four cities in Region 12.

The two most important religious holidays in Islam, the Eid’l Fitr and the Eid’l Adha, or feast of sacrifice, are both observed as non-working holidays in BARMM and in other southern regions.

Macacua said he appreciates the public service programs of Tamayo and Taliño-Mendoza, both Christians, for their Muslim constituents in South Cotabato and in Cotabato provinces, many of them related by blood to residents of BARMM’s Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte provinces, not to distant from both predominantly Christian domains.