Officials glad with high turnout of BARMM voters' listing

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April 3, 2026 | 3:23pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Bangsamoro officials were elated with the high turnout of the registration of voters in the autonomous region in preparation for the first ever September 14, 2026 parliamentary elections in the five provinces and three cities in its core territory.

Radio reports on Thursday, April 2, stated that 160,361 more residents in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had been included in the list of voters of the Commission on Elections during registration activities from February 9 to March 31.

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. signed last month the Republic Act 12317 that set the first BARMM parliamentary elections to September 14, supposedly held last March 30 as scheduled by the Bangsamoro regional parliament.

Of the 160,361 newly-listed voters in BARMM, 78,478 are women, according to reports on Thursday morning by radio stations in this city and in nearby Central Mindanao provinces.

Ranking officials of three regional parties, Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Bangsamoro People’s Party, Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, and the region's labor and employment minister, Muslimin Sema, of the Bangsamoro Party, separately told reporters on Thursday that they are glad having more voters to participate in the September 14 elections.

“That is so essential in promoting our concept of participatory governance, voters choosing freely whom they want to represent them in the Bangsamoro regional parliament,” said Hataman, who had served as regional governor of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for two consecutive terms. He is also the figurehead of the Basilan Unity Party, whose members are scattered across the 11 towns and two cities in their island province.

The ARMM, which operated for 27 years, was replaced with a more empowered BARMM in 2019. The Bangsamoro region covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, where its regional capitol is located.

“This early we shall start engaging in activities that can help ensure peaceful and clean parliamentary elections in Basilan on September 14," said Hataman, presiding chairperson of the multi-sector Basilan Provincial Peace and Order Council.

Sema, chairman of the central committee of the Moro National Liberation Front and one of the founders of their Bangsamoro Party, more known in BARMM as the “Bapa Party,” said he and all the members of the front in the provinces and cities in the Bangsamoro region shall also willingly help the Comelec ensure a safe and honest regional electoral exercise on September 14.

The MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which have separate peace accords with the national government, both have incumbent representatives, appointed by President Marcos, to the 80-seat BARMM parliament.

“It is time for us to have parliament members who have a mandate from voters,” Sema said.

Members of the BARMM parliament, among them the lawyers Naguib Sinarimbo, Ishak Mastura and Jet Lim and the physician ophthalmologist Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., who is also concurrently serving as regional health minister, separately informed reporters on Thursday that they are glad with the president’s having set the regional polls on September 14 via the Republic Act 12317.

Sinarimbo, who was BARMM’s local government minister prior to his appointment last year as member of the regional parliament by President Marcos, said the September 14 elections will enable voters to freely elect candidates they want to represent their districts to the region’s law-making body.

“We promise to do our best to guard, in all legal ways, the integrity of this upcoming electoral exercise,” Sinarimbo said.