Under a sky still waiting for a calendar, the Commission on Elections has done the one thing within its reach: it has fixed how the seats of the Bangsamoro Parliament will be shared among the region's provinces and cities. Thirty-two district seats now have their places on the map, though the day on which voters will fill them remains in the hands of Congress. The delay is a long chain of promises made and remade since the Bangsamoro Organic Law was signed in 2018, each postponement carrying the weight of a region still learning how to govern itself. What comes next will show whether the parti
Comelec Fixes BARMM Parliamentary Seat Allocation as Election Date Awaits Congress
The seat map is fixed; the vote itself still has no date.
Mark
So what did Comelec actually settle this week?
Mimi
How the 80 seats are divided. Resolution 11199 sets 32 district seats, with Lanao del Sur holding nine, the largest share.
Mark
And the other 48?
Mimi
Forty for party representatives and eight for sectoral representatives.
Luke
But there's still no election date. The seat map is fixed; the vote isn't scheduled.
Mimi
Right. Congress has to pass a law setting it, since Comelec deferred the March 30 polls.
Mark
Why did it slip so far?
Mimi
The Supreme Court struck down BAA 77 and BAA 58 in October after Sulu's exclusion, and ordered a new districting law by Oct. 30. The BTA approved its bill on Jan. 13.
Luke
Worth noting the one-month-and-two-weeks problem is Garcia's own assessment of Comelec's readiness. The legal point on the 120-day period is also his citation.
Mark
And September?
Mimi
That's Garcia's proposal, not a decision. He says 2027 is too crowded and opposes 2028.
Luke
Whether Congress follows it is unknown, and the source doesn't say when it will act.
Der Puls
- Comelec has promulgated Resolution 11199, dividing 32 district seats across the BARMM, with Lanao del Sur taking the largest share at nine.
- The March 30 polls collapsed after the BTA passed its districting law only on January 13, a month before the vote was due.
- A Supreme Court ruling excluding Sulu forced a reallocation that the election calendar could not absorb in time.
- Comelec is pressing Congress to set a September 2026 date and warning hard against a 2028 schedule that would collide with national polls.
- The commission needs at least six months of lead time, so the BTA must finish Electoral Code changes quickly or the timetable slips further.
Under a sky still waiting for a calendar, the Commission on Elections has done the one thing within its reach: it has fixed how the seats of the Bangsamoro Parliament will be shared among the region's provinces and cities. Thirty-two district seats now have their places on the map, though the day on which voters will fill them remains in the hands of Congress. The delay is a long chain of promises made and remade since the Bangsamoro Organic Law was signed in 2018, each postponement carrying the weight of a region still learning how to govern itself. What comes next will show whether the parties of this long transition can agree on the rules quickly enough to let the people finally speak.
At its regular Wednesday en banc session, the Commission on Elections promulgated Resolution 11199, fixing how the seats in the Bangsamoro Parliament will be distributed. The step is concrete, but the election it serves still has no date.
The resolution follows the Bangsamoro Transition Authority's approval of Bangsamoro Autonomous Act 86, which created 32 single-member districts. Lanao del Sur receives nine seats, Maguindanao del Sur and del Norte five each, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi four each, the city of Cotabato three, and the Special Geographic Area two. Those 63 barangays in six Cotabato municipalities sit inside the BARMM even though their mother province remains in another region. Altogether 80 seats are at stake, with 40 for party representatives and eight for sectoral representatives.
The path to this moment has been long. The Bangsamoro Organic Law was signed in 2018 with elections first set for 2023, then moved to 2025, then reset to October 2025. The Supreme Court's October ruling against the Sulu-related districting forced a postponement and ordered a new law by late October. The BTA did not pass that law until January 13, 2026, too late for the March 30 polls. Comelec deferred the vote, citing both the short preparation window and a legal conflict with the Voters Registration Act's bar on altering precincts during the election period.
Chairman George Erwin Garcia has proposed that Congress set a September 2026 date, which he considers workable even with barangay and SK elections in November. He opposes holding the BARMM vote alongside the 2028 national contests, and he has asked the BTA to finish any Electoral Code changes quickly, since the commission needs at least six months to prepare. The next thing to watch is whether Congress acts, and on which date.
At its regular Wednesday en banc session, the Commission on Elections promulgated Resolution 11199, which fixes how the seats in the Bangsamoro Parliament will be distributed. It is a concrete step on an election that still has no date.
The resolution follows the Bangsamoro Transition Authority's approval of Bangsamoro Autonomous Act 86, which created 32 single-member parliamentary districts across the BARMM's member provinces. Lanao del Sur gets the most, with nine seats. Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte have five each, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi four each, the city of Cotabato three, and the Special Geographic Area two.
The Special Geographic Area covers 63 barangays in six municipalities of Cotabato province. They joined the BARMM even though their mother province, North Cotabato, remains in Region 12 (Soccsksargen). Altogether, 80 seats are at stake: the 32 district seats, 40 for party representatives and eight for sectoral representatives. The same day, the Office of the Secretary to the Commission issued Memorandum Order 260254, asking that Resolution 11199 be published in newspapers of general circulation and posted on the Comelec website.
The allocation comes after a long run of delays. The Bangsamoro Organic Law, Republic Act 11054, was signed by then-president Rodrigo Duterte on July 26, 2018, and originally set the first parliamentary elections for May 2023. In 2021, Duterte signed RA 11593, moving them to May 2025 to coincide with the national and local elections. On Feb. 19, 2025, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed RA 12123, resetting the May 12 vote to Oct. 13, 2025.
Then, on Oct. 2, 2025, eleven days before that date, the Supreme Court declared BAA 77 and BAA 58 unconstitutional, and Comelec had to postpone. BAA 77, which amended BAA 58, had reallocated the seven parliamentary districts originally assigned to Sulu, after a high court ruling excluded Sulu from the region because it rejected the BOL in the plebiscite. The same ruling told Comelec to keep preparing for elections to be held no later than March 31, 2026, and ordered the BTA to pass a new districting law by Oct. 30, 2025.
The BTA did not approve Parliamentary Bill 415, the proposed districting law, until Jan. 13, 2026, little more than a month before the planned March 30 polls. In a resolution dated Jan. 28, 2026, the Comelec en banc deferred the elections until Congress sets a new date, citing legal and operational problems. Chairman George Erwin Garcia said the commission could not prepare in one month and two weeks, and that it would wait for a law from Congress fixing the date.
Garcia also pointed to legal complications. Parliamentary Bill 415's effectivity falls within the 120-day period under RA 8189, the Voters Registration Act of 1996, which bars altering a precinct once the election period begins.
He has proposed that Congress set the new date in September this year, so that preparations for the 2028 presidential and vice presidential elections are not disrupted. He said September is workable even with barangay and SK elections on Nov. 2, since 2027 will already be taken up by preparations for the 2028 national and local contests.
Comelec will oppose holding the BARMM polls in 2028, Garcia said, and does not want them alongside the 2028 elections. He urged the BTA to finish any changes to the Electoral Code as early as possible, since the commission needs at least six months to prepare. If Congress picks a date this year, he said, the BARMM parliament must complete everything it wants to change about the elections first, so that preparations go without delay. The next thing to watch is whether Congress acts, and on what date.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
Comelec cannot prepare in one month and two weeks and will wait for a law from Congress fixing the new date.— Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia
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