Late BARMM districting law risks March vote postponement

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – The much-awaited districting law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) is finally in place, but the timing of its passage may have come too late to salvage the region’s long-delayed first parliamentary elections.

After a marathon 10-hour special session, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) approved BTA Bill No. 415, or the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Districts Act, after midnight Tuesday, January 13, redrawing the region into 32 single-member parliamentary districts.

Yet the passage, just over two months before the March 31 scheduled polls, comes amid a shrinking window for election preparations. 

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Lawyer Benedicto Bacani, Institute for Autonomy and Governance executive director, said the new BARMM measure clears the first hurdle, but he cautioned that BARMM’s March 2026 elections may already be out of reach.

On September 30, 2025, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to hold the BARMM elections “not later than March 31, 2026.”

“[The] passage is good because the primary step so elections can proceed has been hurdled. But since this was passed within the 120-day ban to change precincts, the elections cannot be held on or before March 31, as mandated by the Supreme Court decision,” Bacani told Rappler on Tuesday.

Bacani cited Section 5 of Republic Act 8189, or the Voters’ Registration Act, which governs the creation and numbering of election precincts to ensure voter lists are accurate and up to date.

He said the law’s late passage falls within a four-month period when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) cannot adjust polling precincts, which could force another delay in the election schedule.

Bacani said Congress would need to step in to fix the date of the first parliamentary elections. 

The BARMM elections have been postponed several times since the predominantly Muslim region was created in 2019. They were originally scheduled for 2022, then moved to May 2025, shifted again to October 2025, and reset to March 2026 after the SC ruling in late September 2025 struck down the region’s earlier two districting laws as unconstitutional.

The High Tribunal had given BARMM until the end of October 2025 to work on a valid districting law, but the year ended without any progress. 

The just-approved measure redraws the parliamentary district map to compensate for the 2024 exclusion of Sulu province and its seven parliamentary seats, and complete the 80-seat regional parliament.

The main author of the districting law, BTA Member Naguib Sinarimbo, said the measure “will pave the way for the first BARMM Parliamentary elections and establish a democratically elected Parliament,” but also stressed that the election date would need to be set by Congress.

Sinarimbo, a former BARMM interior minister, said holding the BARMM elections this March “may no longer be doable” given the time needed for Comelec preparations and Congress’ legislative processes. 

He also said the March election date stated in the SC decision in late September 2025, “with all due respect, is a judicial overreach.”

“In our jurisdiction, only Congress may set the date of elections,” Sinarimbo said. – Rappler.com