President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has certified a measure deferring the first-ever parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) as urgent legislation.

Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cesar Chavez confirmed this development to reporters on Wednesday, 29 January.

It was Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero who earlier disclosed that Marcos sought the BARMM election postponement. 

“President Marcos has certified the postponement of the BARMM elections as urgent,” Escudero said.

However, he did not specify whether the bill certified as urgent was the version from the Senate or the House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives approved, on the third and final reading, the measure postponing BARMM elections to 2026.

The Senate version of the bill seeking to move the BARMM polls has already been approved on a second reading.

The upper chamber originally proposed the deferment from 12 May to 11 August. However, Senator JV Ejercito, who sponsored the bill, said it will now be moved to 13 October.

Ejercito’s office said, “The next election shall be held and synchronized with the 2028 national elections, and every 3 years thereafter.”

Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel was the only one to vote against the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 2942, arguing that the BARMM elections had already been postponed multiple times.

Pimentel said postponing it again to October 2025 would permanently “desynchronize” the BARMM polls from national and local elections.

Meanwhile, Escudero said he has already discussed President Marcos’ certification of the bill as urgent with Pimentel.

“He does recognize that this is really urgent because a decision needs to be made, one way or the other, whether the BARMM elections will be postponed or not before we adjourn,” he pointed out. 

Escudero lamented that if the Senate adjourns, there will not be enough time to reset the elections.

“If we adjourn, there will be no enough time to reset it if that’s the decision of the majority when we resume on May 20, because the election will already be over,” he said.

Escudero said the Senate is considering passing the bill on the third reading by next week without Marcos’ certification. 

He had previously filed a bill to formalize his proposal to defer the BARMM parliamentary elections, following the recent Supreme Court ruling on the exclusion of Sulu from the regional group. 

He noted that the Senate version of the proposed measure could still be amended to delay the BARMM polls by five months, as recommended by security officials and considering Sulu’s position.

“They are just being given enough allowance and leeway, rather than them returning to Congress and requesting an additional two months or one more month of extension,” Escudero said.

BARMM ballot printing on hold

Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that it will not proceed with the printing of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Parliamentary Election ballots just yet.

This after the Chief Executive certified as urgent the bill seeking the postponement of the first-ever BARMM Parliamentary poll to October.

“Because of these recent developments, we did not yet proceed with the printing of the BARMM Parliamentary ballots. Only the national and local elections ballots,” Comelec Chairperson George Garcia told reporters in a Viber message.

“The reason is that we may end up opening the filing of candidacy anew for the region in the event of redistricting as a result of reapportionment of the slots originally assigned to Sulu,” Garcia explained.

The Bangsamoro election was initially proposed to be moved from 12 May to 11 August.

Calls to postpone the BARMM polls intensified after the Supreme Court (SC) ruled to exclude Sulu Province from BARMM.

On Monday, 27 January, the Comelec resumed printing ballots for the national and local elections after multiple delays caused by the SC’s decisions on the disqualification cases of some candidates.