Deputy Minority Leader and Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman raised serious constitutional concerns regarding proposals to reset the 2025 Bangsamoro region elections to May 2026.
Hataman said the postponement would violate the constitutional mandate for synchronized elections.
During the hearing of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, Hataman said the SC clearly laid out in the 2011 case of Kida vs. Senate of the Philippines that national and local elections should be synchronized, with the exception of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
“Even if we want to postpone the BARMM elections, it is my opinion that we cannot do it because it is against the mandate of the Constitution that the elections should be ‘synchronized,” Hataman said.
He cited the High Court’s ruling, which underscored the constitutional intent to synchronize national and local elections, including those in autonomous regions like the BARMM.
“If we postpone the 2025 BARMM elections, and according to the proposal we are talking about in Congress now that the election is every three years, the succeeding elections would fall on May 2029. It is no longer synchronized with our national elections,” he said in Filipino.
Hataman also expressed dismay that “Congress, [being] an integral part of the national government, seem to take the right to suffrage of the people in the Bangsamoro region very lightly as evinced by many instances of postponing the elections in BARMM.”
Although the issue of the exclusion of Sulu is a very serious one, both Comelec chairman George Garcia and Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity headed by Secretary Carlito Galvez both believed the ruling was not final.
He reiterated that the synchronization of elections is a constitutional mandate that Congress must uphold, encompassing the BARMM polls.
Hataman cited the SC ruling on Kida vs. Senate of the Philippines as stating; “While the Constitution does not expressly state that Congress has to synchronize national and local elections, the clear intent towards this objective can be gleaned from the transitory provisions of the Constitution, which show the extent to which the Constitutional Commission, by deliberately making adjustments to the terms of the incumbent officials, sought to attain synchronization of elections.”
He pointed out that the SC decision also stated “Although called regional elections, the ARMM elections should be included among the elections to be synchronized as it is a local election based on the wording and structure of the Constitution.
“Synchronization of national and local elections is a constitutional mandate that Congress must provide for and this synchronization must include the BARMM elections,” Hataman stressed.
