DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 20 September) – When the 80-member Parliament of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) begins its regular sessions this week in Cotabato City, it will be a Parliament with “no majority and no minority.”
“Just one BTA,” said Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim.
Member of Parliament Pangalian Balindong, who had served as Speaker of the first BTA (BTA1) under the Duterte administration (2019 to 2022) and was unanimously elected Speaker by 79 members present at the inaugural session last Thursday, declared in his speech that “the entire Parliament had taken a consensus that we do not distinguish between the majority and minority. We think that we are all committed towards a common aspiration and that failure will never be an option for our people.”
Member of Parliament Pangalian Balindong takes his oath as elected Speaker of the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority on 15 September 2022 in Cotabato City. Photo courtesy of Bangsamoro Parliament
The BTA, which started regular sessions on Tuesday, September 20, is led by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the revolutionary group that signed a peace agreement with government in March 2014 – the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro. The peace agreement paved the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) through its enabling law, Republic Act 11054.
The BTA has 80 members, 41 of them nominated by the MILF and 39 by government. BTA2, to distinguish it from BTA1 (2019-2022 BTA under the Duterte administration) has a total of 55 members from the Moro revolutionary groups – 41 nominated by the MILF and 14 or seven each nominated to the government by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under Muslimin Sema and under founding chair Nur Misuari.
Sema’s MNLF had participated in the MILF peace process since 2017, nominating members to the Bangsamoro Transition Commission (BTC) that drafted the Organic Law for the BARMM. It also nominated members to BTA1.
This is the first time Misuari’s MNLF nominated members to the BTA, among them Abdulkarim, his eldest son with first wife Desdemona Tan, and Nurredha, his eldest child with third wife Tarhata Ibrahim.
Balindong said the unity of the MNLF and the MILF in BTA2 “is a significant step towards genuine peace and harmony to rule in Muslim Mindanao.”
“Such union does not only provide hope to harmonize the various peace agreements that the Philippine government had entered into with the biggest secessionist Muslim groups in the past 50 years. It also serves as a model for other rebel groups to realize that all of us are indispensable tools in that huge political machinery that is tasked to rebuild the foundations of our homeland,” said Balindong, who was unopposed in the election for Speaker.
The MNLF signed the Tripoli Agreement with government in December 1976 and the Final Peace Agreement in September 1996 while the MILF signed the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro in October 2012 and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in March 2014.
Balindong stressed that failure is not an option. “We cannot fail because our people have suffered enough. It is only through our unity that we can repay the blood that our brothers and sisters had spilt in order to achieve their dream towards peace, progress and the right to self-determination.”
Ebrahim told MindaNews in his office at the Bangsamoro Government Center in Cotabato City last Friday that in an online meeting with the BTA members before the inaugural session, the Members of Parliament (MPs) were “quite cooperative.” He said the meeting was called so they could discuss the direction they were headed as a transition government. He noted that an MP moved to do away with majority and minority labels. “Wala nang minority, majority. One BTA na lang tayo,” he quoted the MP as saying. “Everybody naman agreed,” he said.
Bangsamoro Chief Minister Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, also chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. MindaNews photo by GREGORIO C. BUENO
As a result, Ebrahim said, there will be no more minority floor leader and the newly elected majority floor leader, lawyer Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba, will be referred to as “Floor Leader.”
Before her appointment as MP, Dumama-Alba served as Bangsamoro Attorney General.
Ebrahim said Dumama-Alba will have an Assistant Floor Leader.
“Magkaroon na ng isang floor leader. Merong assistant floor leader. So wala nang minority, majority,” (We will have one floor leader. There will be an assistant floor leader. So there is no more minority, majority), Ebrahim added.
Aside from Balindong and Dumama-Alba, the Parliament has seven Deputy Speakers: lawyers Nabil Tan, Paisalin Tago, Omar Yasser Crisostomo Sema, Lanang Ali, Jr. and Hatimil Hassan, Benjamin Loong and Abdulkarim Misuari.
Among the Deputy Speakers are the sons of MNLF leaders Nur Misuari and Muslimin Sema, Abulkarim and Omar.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. describes the inaugural session of the Parliament the Bangsamoro in Cotabato City on Thursday, 15 September 2022 as a “very, very important occasion.” CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS
On Tuesday, September 20, the Parliament elected four deputy floor leaders – three of them women – MPs Raissa Jajurie, Anna Tarhata Basman and Mary Ann Arnado (all of them lawyers) – and the lone male, Jose Lorena, also a lawyer. Jajurie, Basman and Lorena were members of BTA1.
In BTA1, the Minority Floor Leader was lawyer Laisa Alamia. Alamia had earlier served as Executive Secretary and Social Welfare Secretary of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Alamia told MindaNews that even as the consensus is no minority and no majority, “that doesn’t preclude each MP from doing his/her job, that is, to fiscalize, inquire, scrutinize, draft and pass laws.”
In his speech last Thursday, Ebrahim assured President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. that “we will complete all the remaining transition priorities and finish setting up a government not only ready for a peaceful and orderly elections in 2025 but also a government capable of continuing the transformation of the BARMM into a progressive and responsive region.”
He said they will file “more than 20 Cabinet bills” as soon as the sessions start.
“We commit to deliver the Bangsamoro Electoral Code and the Bangsamoro Local Governance Code if not by the end of the year, then by the first quarter of 2023,” he said.
Courtesy of BTA Parliament FB
Ebrahim told MindaNews on Friday that the Local Government Code had been filed in the previous BTA but will be re-filed in BTA2. He said the Revenue Code might take a bit longer because it is “too technical” but they also hope to pass the Bangsamoro Indigenous People’s Rights Act, the Gender and Development Code, the Internally Displaced People law, the Magna Carta for Persons With Disabilities, Irrigation System Bill, and Energy Development Corporation of the Bangsamoro Charter.
Addressing the President, Ebrahim said the peace process “started during your father’s time and it would be a fitting end to this long journey if we could complete the process during your administration.”
“Mr. President, you have our full support and together, we will make the successful implementation of the Bangsamoro Peace Process as one of your greatest legacies. In Shaa Allah,” Ebrahim said.
He handed over to the President printed copies of the draft Electoral Code and draft Local Government Code as their birthday gift to him, “presents for the additional year of life the almighty has blessed you with.”
The transition period in the BARMM was supposed to have ended on June 30, 2022 but a law was passed to extend it until 2025 by resetting the May 2022 election of the 80-member Parliament to May 2025.
The transition period ends at noon on June 30, 2025, when the first set of officials elected in May 2025 shall have taken their oath. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
