The Supreme Court en banc has struck down two Bangsamoro parliamentary redistricting laws, declaring them unconstitutional and effectively postponing the first regular parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to March 2026.
In a decision promulgated on 30 September and made public Wednesday, the Court granted the consolidated petitions (Ali et al. v. Bangsamoro Transition Authority Parliament and Macapaar et al. v. Commission on Elections and Bangsamoro Transition Authority), declaring Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) No. 77 and its predecessor, BAA 58, void.
The Court said BAA 77, or the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Redistricting Act of 2025, violated Section 5 of the Voter’s Registration Act, which prohibits alterations of precincts once the election period has begun. The law, which reorganized BARMM districts and reallocated seats originally intended for Sulu, was passed on 19 August — five days after the 14 August start of the election period — and signed on 28 August.
It also found BAA 77 inconsistent with the Bangsamoro Organic Law, ruling that it created districts that were neither adjacent nor contiguous, splitting areas in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, and Cotabato City into non-adjoining districts.
The Court further ruled that nullifying BAA 77 does not revive BAA 58, the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Districts Act of 2024, which included Sulu despite its exclusion from BARMM. Since BAA 58 relied on an outdated framework, it could not be reinstated.
“There can be no BARMM parliamentary elections on 13 October 2025, because of the lack of a valid districting law,” the Court said, directing the Bangsamoro Transition Authority to complete the proper determination of parliamentary districts by 30 October 2025.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) was ordered to conduct the parliamentary polls no later than 31 March 2026.
The poll body had earlier warned that enforcing BAA 77 just weeks before the scheduled elections would have caused massive confusion among 2.25 million registered voters across 105 municipalities and three cities, disrupted the training of poll workers, delayed the deployment of equipment such as Starlink, and made it impossible to complete sectoral assemblies required under the Bangsamoro Electoral Code.
The ruling was immediately executory, with an 11-3-1 vote. Acting Chief Justice Marvic Leonen and Associate Justices Ricardo Rosario and Antonio Kho Jr. dissented in part, arguing that elections could still proceed under existing legal frameworks.