Bangsamoro Region to Hold First Parliamentary Election, Ending Transition Period

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), in the Philippines, is set to hold its first parliamentary election on Monday since the region was formally established in 2018. The vote will bring an official close to the transitional phase overseen by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), an interim government that has been in place since 2019.

The election represents a major step in the long-running Bangsamoro movement, which followed decades of armed conflict and negotiation between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government. It is expected to serve as an indicator of both the government's dedication to the peace process and the MILF's willingness to pursue political change through democratic means.

BARMM sits on Mindanao, the Philippines' second-largest island, and largely corresponds to areas historically home to the Moro people, a Muslim-majority community that once governed itself and resisted Spanish colonial rule. After the Philippines gained independence in 1946, the Moro continued to seek greater self-determination.

In 1989, Manila established the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to provide some degree of devolved governance, but the region struggled to improve living conditions or address local grievances due to limited political and financial authority. Armed conflict led by the MILF persisted.

In 2012, then-President Benigno Aquino III described ARMM as an unsuccessful undertaking, and his government signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro with the MILF, setting the stage for a new political structure. Six years later, under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the Organic Law establishing BARMM was enacted, granting the region expanded fiscal powers, its own government, parliament, and justice system.

The subsequent Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro outlined the transition from ARMM to BARMM and created the MILF-led BTA to manage this period — a process now reaching its conclusion with the upcoming election of the region's first legislative body.