Women in the Bangsamoro: from 16 each in BTA 1 and 2 to only 10 in BTA3
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 24 March) – International Women’s Month is about to end on a sad note in the Bangsamoro autonomous region as women representation in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) has dropped form 20% to 12.5% with the appointment of only 10 out of 80 Members of Parliament (MPs) in BTA 3.
Sixteen women MPs were appointed by then President Rodrigo Duterte in BTA 1 (2019 to 2022). In August 22, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed 16 women in BTA 2 but it dropped to 15 in 2024 with the resignation one one member.
Among the women MPs who were not reappointed to the BTA3 is Diamila Ramos, Chair of the Committee on Women, Youth, Children, and Persons with Disabilities, where the proposed Bangsamoro Gender and Development Code is pending.
President Marcos appointed a new set of MPs for BTA 3, following the postponement of the BARMM’s first parliamentary election from May 12, 2025 to October 13, 2025, which effectively extended the transition period until October 30, 2025.
Marcos also named a new interim Chief Minister, Abdulraof Macacua, replacing MILF chair Ahod ‘Al Haj Murad’ Ebrahim who served the post from February 2019 to March 2025, with Abdulraof Macacua, chief of the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces.
Of the ten women MPs in BTA 3, nine were reappointed. Four of them have been MPs since BTA1 — Laisa Alamia, Baintan Adil Ampatuan, Susana Salvador Anayatin and Raissa Herradura Jajurie — while five have been MPs since BTA2 — Sha Elijah Biruarr Dumama-Alba, Baileng Simpal Mantawil, Froilyn Tenorio Mendoza, Nurredha Ibrahim Misuari, and Sittie Fahanie Sindatok Uy-Uyod.
The 10th woman in the BTA is Bai Ali Sansaluna Karon, daughter of martyred First Field Marshall Datu Ali Sansaluna, who was nominated by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF-Sema-Jikiri).
Of the 10, four are lawyers – Alamia, Jajurie, Dumama-Alba and Uy-Oyod.
Jajurie has been the Minister of Social Services and Development (MSSD) since 2019 while Dumama-Alba has been the Minister of Interior and Local Government (MILG) since December 2023.
Before her appointment in the BTA, Alamia had served as Executive Secretary and Social Welfare Secretary. in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao(ARMM) which was abolished and replaced by the BARMM. She headed the BTA’s Minority Bloc in BTA 1 and was the lone woman among eight Deputy Speakers in BTA 2.
Jajurie, who hails from Sulu, finished Political Science at the Ateneo de Manila University and Law at the University of the Philippines and headed the alternative law group, Saligan Mindanaw.
She was one of two women who made history in July 2011 for having been named advisers to the all-male MILF peace panel, apparently in response to criticisms that the MILF reconstituted yet another all-male panel.
She later served as alternate panel member and steered the Technical Working Group on Wealth-sharing for the peace panel, was named member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) from 2013 to 2016 and 2017 to 2019. The BTC drafted the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Jajurie has been MP and Social Services Minister since 2019. She has served as one of four Deputy Floor Leaders in the BTA.
Dumama-Alba earned her Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration at UP Diliman and finished her Law degree at San Beda Mendiola in 2007.
She served as Deputy Executive Director of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, was Member of the Coordinating Team for Transition (CT4T) that drafted the Transition Plan from ARMM to BARMM from 2018 to 2019.
and served as Bangsamoro Attorney General before her appointment as MP in August 2022.
Dumama-Alba was named Floor Leader in BTA 2 and was named Minister for Interior and Local Government in December 2003 and is in the Secretariat for the government and MILF’s Intergovernmental Relations Body.
Uy-Oyod of Datu Piang in Maguindanao del Sur is a Management Accounting graduate from the Ateneo de Daao University where she also finished her MA in Business Asdministration and her Law degree.
Before she was named MP in 2022, she worked at the Public Attorney’s Office in the Davao region.
Engineer Ampatuan of Cotabato City graduated from the Notre Dame University with a degree in Civil Engineering. She served in concurrent capacities as OIC District Engineer of the Maguindanao 1st Engineering District of the ARMM’s Department of Public Works and Highways; and Project Manager of the ARMM-Humanitarian and Development Assistance Program-Project Management Office under the Office of the Regional Governor. She has been an MP since 2019.
Anayatin of Cotabato City is a retired professor representing the settler community. She was a Peace Educator at the Notre Dame University.
Mendoza is from civil society, a leader of the Teduray-Lambangian Women’s Organization. She has been representing the Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples (NMIPs) in the BARMM. Before her appointment as MP, she represented the NMIPs in the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.
Two other MPs are daughters of revolutionaries: Nurredha, daughter of MNLF founding chair Nur Misuari, was nominated by the MNLF-Misuari. Nurredha finished Business Administration, major in Financial Management at the University of Immaculate Conception in Davao City, Magna Cum Laude, in 2019 and was the recipient of the Outstanding Student Award then.
Mantawil is the daughter of MILF Central Committee member Malik Mantawil, who was a member of the MILF peace negotiating panel and served as MP from 2019 to 2022. Mantawil, who took over her father’s seat in the Parliament since 2022, describes herself as a “child of war” and a pioneering member of “Bantay Ceasefire,” a civil-society led ceasefire mechanism monitoring the GPH-MILF peace process. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
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