Selection of officials for 8 Bangsamoro towns on

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Bangsamoro regional officials are now screening applicants for mayor, vice mayor and municipal councilors for the eight newly-created municipalities covering 63 predominantly Moro barangays in Cotabato province in Region 12.

The eight towns, Pahamudin, Kadayangan, Nabalawag, Old Kaabacan, Kapalawan, Malidegao, Tugunan and Ligawasan, were established via a plebiscite administered in April by the Commission on Elections, related to separate enabling measures passed by the 80-seat parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Radio reports here on Saturday stated that a member of the BARMM parliament, Mohammad Kellie Antao, had explained to applicants for the vacant municipal posts, during a dialogue last Tuesday in Midsayap town in Cotabato, the intricacies of the selection process set by the Bangsamoro regional government.

Antao then urged the aspirants, to be appointed, meantime, pending the 2025 local elections, to willingly accept the outcome of the selection that top Bangsamoro regional officials, among them Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, are to facilitate.

The eight new BARMM towns in Cotabato province covers 63 barangays whose residents voted in favor of the inclusion of their barangays in the proposed core territory of the autonomous region during a plebiscite in 2019, as part of the peace agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Antao told reporters here on Saturday that their extensive brainstorming session with applicants for positions in the eight new BARMM towns was assisted by representatives from the office of two other members of the regional parliament, Muhaquer Iqbal and Mohammad Pak, and Ishak Hashim, who is a professor in the University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, Cotabato.