The 2025 parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will push through as scheduled, a Malacañang official said.

“The directive of the President is very, very firm, that we will have an election in 2025 in BARMM,” Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said in a statement Thursday.

Galvez issued the statement amid calls from several civil society organizations (CSOs) for a second three-year extension of the 80-member Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), the region’s provisional lawmaking body.

“We have to prepare for BARMM elections because it is important to have legitimacy and accountability in regional governance,” said Galvez, who attended the Grand Iftar (breaking of the fast) of BARMM and Moro Islamic Liberation Front leaders here Wednesday.

“So, the election will come,” Galvez said, adding that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will hold special registration of voters in Camp Darapanan, the home of the MILF.

He said the President was very firm in his decision not to extend the BTA and to allow the democratic electoral process to proceed in May next year.

“The six-year extension (as envisioned by CSOs) is more than enough; there should be an election,” the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unification said.

Last week, a manifesto from CSOs and peoples’ organizations in BARMM circulated, asking President Marcos to extend the BTA for another three years. It claimed, among others, that not all provisions of the GPH-MILF peace accord have been complied with. (PNA)