Murad says new districting law “raises serious constitutional questions” but Iqbal says they won’t go to SC
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 January) – The chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) claims the new districting law passed by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) early Tuesday morning “raises serious constitutional questions,” but did not say if they were going to the Supreme Court to question its constitutionality.
Instead, MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim (real name Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, the Bangsamoro Chief Minister from February 2019 to March 2025) urged the public to “actively participate in dialogues and continue to be vigilant.”
MindaNews asked MILF Peace Implementing Panel chair Mohagher Iqbal if they were filing a petition before the Supreme Court to declare the new law as unconstitutional but Iqbal replied on Sunday: “No plan.”
In a statement dated January 14 and posted on the social media page of the MILF Chairman on January 16, Murad said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) reiterates its position in support of the conduct of the 1st BARMM Parliamentary Election in 2026 but notes with “deep concern” that the BTA’s passage of Parliamentary Bill 415 on third and final reading “failed to reflect the clamor of the Bangsamoro people for fair and equitable representation.”
Murad said the constitutional questions arising from its passage “mirror(s) the defects that led the Supreme Court to declare Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 77 unconstitutional” including potential violations of the Bangsamoro Organic Law-mandated criteria for districts, such as contiguity, compactness, adjacency, and population distribution.
The bill as amended was passed on third and final reading early Tuesday morning, after a 10-hour deliberation during the special session that started on Monday, January 12 at 2:39 pm and ended at 12:34 a.m om Tuesday, January 13.
Forty-eight Members of Parliament voted for the passage of the bill, 19 voted against and four abstained.
Among the 19 who voted against were Iqbal; Abdullah Hashim, son of the late MILF founding chair Salamat Hashim; Abdullah Macapaar alias Kumander Bravo; and Deputy Speaker Lanang Ali Jr., who last year asked the Supreme Court to declare BAA 77 as unconstitutional.
This is the third districting law passed by the BTA. The Supreme Court on September 30 declared as unconstitutional the two districting laws earlier passed by the BTA — BAA 77 and BAA 58. It urged the BTA to pass a new districting law on or before October 30 and urged Congress to set a new date for the elections
Voters in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are to elect an 80-member Bangsamoro Parliament comprising 40 party representatives, 32 single district representatives and eight sectoral representatives.
The passage of a new districting law paves the way for Congress to set the date for the twice-postponed 1st Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections. The election and oath-taking of the first elected officials mark the end of the already thrice-extended transition period that should have ended on June 30, 2022 but was extended until June 30, 2025, extended anew to October 30, 2025 and extended again until the election.
Murad added that the new law “utterly disregards and refuses to honor existing boundaries, and ignores historical and shared cultural origins, which were repeatedly emphasized during public consultations.”
He said BARMM’s transition to full autonomy “demands legislation beyond reproach, prioritizing the rule of law over expediency.”
Deputy Speaker Laisa Alamia during the special session on Monday said her office did a matrix comparing all six Parliamentary Bills filed on districting, and found that Parliamentary Bill 415 had the “least risk” of being declared unconstitutional.
In explaining his vote for the bill, MP Ishak Mastura said PB 415 is “constitutionally compliant.”
MP Naguib Sinarimbo, chair of the Committee on Local Governments and among the authors of PB 415 said: “while we respect the position of the MILF expressed in the statement, we are of the considered view that we have sufficiently addressed all the issues raised by their representatives in the debates in the Parliament.”
Proposed amendments to the districting clusters in Maguindanao del Norte and Cotabato City were accepted but not in Lanao del Sur.
“We cannot also accede to their proposal to bring together Kapai and Tagoloan in one cluster as it would be a textbook definition of what gerrymandering is as admitted by one of their very own representatives in the Parliament,” Sinarimbo said.
“Our prayer is that all parties must respect the collective decision of the Parliament as the necessity of holding the 1st BPE this year is of paramount importance. We can all disagree but in the end, we must all work together to ensure that the democratic institutions of the BARMM are finally put in place and its collective decisions, albeit imperfect, are respected,” he said.
Murad thanked those who stood by the MILF Central Committee who pushed for PB 407.
But it mustered only 19 votes. The rest of the MILF nominees in the BTA voted yes, abstained or were absent. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
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