Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday said he expects the rescheduling of the first regular elections of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

In his Palace briefing, Roque said that instead of 2022, the BARMM polls may be reset to 2025.

“Well, all I know is that both Houses (of Congress) have passed ito (this). So there is no impediment for it to become law. It becomes a law if the President does not sign it within a certain number of days,” he said.

House Bill 10121 proposing to postpone the elections for three years was approved on September 15, a week after the Senate passed its version.

The bill targets to give the next President the power to appoint the 80 members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) and they will hold office until May 2025.

“So sa akin po, wala na pong gusot iyan (For me, it would be smooth). I think the elections will really be postponed and the members of the BARMM will be appointed by the President,” said Roque.

The BTA is the provisional law-making body of the BARMM that is currently under a transition phase.

The transition plan is set to be completed in 2022 in time for the election of new regional officials and coinciding with the local and national polls in May 9.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted activities, including the third decommissioning phase.

There have been 12,000 ex-Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants decommissioned during the second phase of the normalization track, from August 2019 to March 2020, under the Annex on Normalization of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro forged between the government and MILF.

The decommissioning aims to help former combatants transform into peaceful and productive citizens. (PNA)