Bicam agrees to move BARMM polls to October 2025

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THE bicameral conference committee agreed to set the first Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao election on October 13, 2025, instead of synchronizing it with the May 12 midterm elections, Senate President Francis Escudero yesterday said.

In a chance interview after the committee meeting, Escudero said the House of Representatives’ bicam contingent agreed to reschedule the inaugural BARMM polls on October 13 instead of holding it on May 11, 2026 as approved by the lower chamber in December last year.

“Ang in-adopt five months, October 13 ang halalan. Pumayag ang Kamara. May mga pagbabago ring panukala ang Kamara na in-adopt din ng Senado (What was adopted was [to postpone the BARMM elections by] five months. The House of Representatives agreed [to the Senate recommendation]. There were also changes proposed by the House which the Senate adopted),” Escudero said

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Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman, however, opposed the bicam decision, saying the Bangsamoro people “should exercise their sacred right to choose their leaders.”

“If we really want peace, let the Bangsamoro people freely choose their own leaders through the elections in May 2025,” said the lawmaker, who was part of the bicameral discussions.

Hataman, a former governor of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said it is time for the people of BARMM to directly elect their leaders after the transition period which lasted for more than six years.

Escudero said among the provisions in the House version of the bill that were adopted by the Senate is that the elections will be automated and that the BARMM government will be allowed to spend for Sulu even if the latter was already excluded from the region.

Escudero said there is no provision on the supplemental budget in the bill postponing the BARMM polls, with the bicam version allowing the Commission on Elections to use its savings and appropriations given by the Department of Budget and Management for the elections.

Once passed into law, Escudero said the measure will be effective upon publication in the Official Gazette, unlike other laws which will only be effective 15 days upon publication in newspapers of national circulation.

He said the BARMM elections will no longer be deferred again, and that the earlier proposed one-year postponement was too long. If the polls are postponed by a year, Congress will have enough time to reset it to another date, so the shorter the postponement, the better, he added.

He said another reason for postponing the polls by five months was for security forces to be able to concentrate on the BARMM elections. Holding it at the same time as the midterm elections will divide their attention, he added.

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