MILF and MNLF political parties say Comelec can’t invoke force majeure to postpone Oct. 13 polls

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 29 September) – The political parties of  Moro revolutionaries who waged war against the Philippine government and later signed peace agreements with it, asserted in their comments submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that the electoral body cannot invoke force majeure to postpone the first ever Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections (BPE) on October 13.

The MILF’s political party – the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) – said alluding to the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court on September 15 as a situation falling under force majeure is “legally untenable.”

The Bangsamoro Party (BaPa), the political party of the MNLF under Muslimin Sema has a similar stand. “The issuance of the TRO and the question of what law to apply on the conduct of the BPE cannot be considered as force majeure which will warrant the suspension of the 13 Oct 2025 BARMM parliamentary elections,” it said. 

^{Moro Islamic Liberation Front Chairman Murad Ebrahim, using his real name Ahod “Murad” Balawag Ebrahim, votes for the first time in his life on 21 January 2019 during the plebiscite for the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law at the Simuay Junction Central Elementary School in Simuay, Sultan Kudarat. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO}

The two political parties were among those who submitted comments to the Comelec’s September 25 Resolution 25-1034 which gave all political parties, sectoral organizations, candidates, election stakeholders and citizens’ arms a non-extendible period of 48 hours from promulgation of the resolution to submit a comment on the force majeure issue. After this period, the Comelec said, the issue of the existence of force majeure in relation to the October 13 polls “shall be resolved by the Commission with or without the submission of comments.” 

The election is two weeks away. 

The UBJP’s comment was signed by UBJP President and concurrent MILF chair Ahod Balawag Ebrahim while the BaPa statement was signed by BaPa President Muslimin Sema who is concurrently chair of the MNLF Sema faction. 

The UBJP said there is no specific order in the TRO for Comelec to stop the October 13 polls, no one is forcing or preventing the Comelec from proceeding with the election and “for an occurrence to fall within the ambit of force majeure, such event must have been impossible to foresee or, if foreseeable, impossible to avoid.”

“Indubitably, a TRO is not an act of God but simply an order of the Supreme Court.  It is a clearly a foreseeable event; one that is legally possible for the Comelec to avoid,” the UBJP said, adding none of the enumerated cases in Section 5 is happening in the BARMM to justify postponement of the October 13 polls. 

The Supreme Court on September 15 issued a TRO barring the Comelec and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) from implementing Bangsamoro Autonomy Act (BAA) 77 or the redistricting law that reallocated the seven seats originally intended for Sulu, pending the final resolution of the two petitions filed before the Supreme Court.  

The SC ruling was announced on September 16. On September 17, the Comelec en banc passed a resolution suspending all preparations for the October 13 polls, citing the TRO and claiming there is no law governing the first BPE because BAA 58, which was its basis for the parliamentary district seat election, was repealed by BAA 77. 

^{Erstwhile estranged brothers in the Bangsamoro struggle (L to R) Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, Nur Misuari and Muslimin Sema are reunited at the inaugural session of the Bangsamoro Parliament on Thursday, 15 September 2022 in Cotabato City, at peace with each other’s presence. Ebrahim is Chief Minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Misuari is founding chair of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Sema chairs a faction of the MNLF. Ebrahim visited Misuari in his residence in Davao City on September11. Sema and Misuari before the President arrived, embraced each other, both of them promising to visit each other. MindaNews photo by CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS}

The BaPa said the issue of reapportionment of the seven seats of Sulu was already addressed when no less than Comelec chair George Erwin Garcia said last June that the elections will proceed as scheduled on October 13 for 73 instead of 80 parliamentary seats. At that time, the seven seats for single district representatives that were originally intended for Sulu had yet to be reapportioned by Bangsamoro Parliament.

The BaPa quoted Garcia as saying, “We cannot wait forever” and “If we delay our preparations to wait for the decision on the (seven) seats, we might fall short.”

The UBJP maintains that the Comelec “does not have the power to postpone the entire parliamentary elections.”

It disagreed with the Comelec’s claim that the TRO left it without an election law to enforce and administer in the BARMM. The UBJP explained that the Comelec’s Law Department failed to recognize that it is the Bangsamoro Electoral Code that provides the comprehensive framework for the conduct of the BARMM polls. 

“The Electoral Code remains the principal statute to be implemented and enforced by this Honorable Commission, since BAA No. 77 is limited in scope, as it only pertains to the reapportionment and reallocation of parliamentary districts,” it said. 

The UBJP said district representatives constitute a substantial bloc but they account for only 40% of the Bangsamoro Parliament. The 60% represents 40 political party seats and eight sectoral seats – and are not affected by BAA 77. 

It also emphasized that the holding of election is a commitment of the National Government and the MILF under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace agreement signed in March 2014. 

^{A member of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front waits for his turn to check his name on the voters’ list outside a voting precinct in Kabasalan Elementary School in Barangay Kabasalan, Pikit, North Cotabato, on 06 February 2019. MindaNews photo by CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS}

The CAB paved the way for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2019. The transition period should have ended on June 30, 2022 but the first BARMM parliamentary election has been postponed twice. It was supposed to be held on May 9, 2022 was reset to May 12, 2025 and again reset to October 13, 2025. 

“Wisdom dictates that the current political imbroglio in the Bangsamoro Transition Authority can best be decided directly by the people in the  exercise of their constitutional right to freely elect the men and women who will govern the Bangsamoro autonomous region,” the UBJP said.

“This is not only about the right to vote but more significantly respecting autonomy, honoring the peace agreements and affirming the right to self-determination of the Bangsamoro people,” the UBJP said. 

The BaPa said suspending and delaying the October 13 polls will have “adverse effects on both the stakeholders and the integrity of the results of the elections.”

It said uncertainty had caused confusion to the electorate, “leading to loss of enthusiasm to participate in the electoral process;” will create in the mind of the electorate an impression that the delay is part of a plot to favor a specific party or candidate which will make the results of the elections questionable and unreliable.

It also said the uncertainty has caused adverse financial effects among political parties as its donors and supporters are “likewise in limbo on whether to provide additional financial support.” 

It said Comelec should “not lose sight on the very foundation of the establishment of the BARMM which is to correct historical injustices” and that the October 13 polls is an “avenue for the electorate and the revolutionaries” to “reap the fruits of its long struggle to fight for autonomy and belief in the legal process.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)