The Alliance of Moral Advancement and New BARMM For All (AMANA-BARMM) said the region’s anti-dynasty rules are now being attacked, months before the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) elections happen in September.
“BARMM voters must not face the first parliamentary election under weakened safeguards, disputed districts, and records still withheld from the Supreme Court,” alleges Sultan Alim Saad Amate and Maulana Mamutuk, conveners of AMANA-BARMM, in a statement sent to DAILY TRIBUNE.
The group leaders said they filed their Very Urgent Manifestation on 22 May because the warning signs are now clear that the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) “is moving toward the deletion of anti-dynasty safeguards in the Bangsamoro Electoral Code and the Local Governance Code.”
“This cuts into the very promise of the BARM: a new political order, not the old politics of family control under a new name,” they said.
At the same time, the AMANA-BARMM leaders said Bangsamoro Autonomous Act 1986 remains under serious constitutional challenge.
“The questioned districting affects representation in the first BARM parliamentary election. If the districts are unlawful, the injury cannot be repaired after election day. Worse, the BTA has failed to comply with the Supreme Court's 8 April 2026 directive requiring respondents to comment on the Petition and the TRO prayer, and to submit key records behind BAA 86 and BAA 88. From the lapse of the period to answer until our filing, no answer was filed. Not even a manifestation explaining the failure was submitted,” they explained.
“This is not ordinary politics. This is a test of whether the BARM election will belong to the people or to those already holding power. We respectfully ask the Supreme Court to issue the TRO or Status Quo Ante Order before the damage becomes irreversible,” they added.
Last March, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Republic Act No. 12317, resetting the first regular elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to the second Monday of September 2026.
Under the said law, the transition period has been extended, allowing the interim BTA to continue governing unless replaced by the President, elected to a different office, or replaced by elected officials.
Last week, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia said the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections and the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections are expected to push through as scheduled despite some legal impediments.
The poll body has allocated around P3 billion for the BARMM elections, with a standby fund worth P500 million from the BARMM government.