Philippines Gears Up for First BARMM Parliamentary Polls; Security Forces Ready

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police and the military’s Western Mindanao Command are all set for the September 14 first-ever parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The Commission on Elections announced on Monday that it has completed the printing of the 2.3 million ballots needed for the electoral exercise on September 14 in the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and in the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, which is the regional capital of BARMM. Officials of the WestMinCom, whose headquarters are in Zamboanga City, and Brig. Gen. Christopher Abecia, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Tuesday that all of their units are prepared to help the Comelec ensure safe and clean elections in all of the five provinces and three cities in the autonomous region. Officials of different PRO-BAR units had, with the help of local executives and Muslim religious leaders, settled amicably in the past 24 months 39 bloody clan wars, many of which involved incumbent local executives, as part of their security preparations for the September 14 BARMM elections. Major. Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said on Tuesday that all of their units in the adjoining Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur are, this early, fully prepared to secure all polling sites, under Comelec’s supervision, in both provinces and in Cotabato City. The Comelec had reportedly spent P63 million for the printing of the ballots needed in BARMM’s September 14 parliamentary polls. Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said she and her constituent-mayors are also ready to embark on activities complementing the election security thrusts of the Comelec and Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade and PRO-BAR in the eight newly-created towns in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area inside their province, which is under Region 12. "All those eight newly-established Bangsamoro municipalities are under the Bangsamoro regional government, but are inside our province, under Region 12. We have to support the election security agenda of the Comelec for the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area in whatever legal, possible way," Taliño-Mendoza said. At least 27 areas in BARMM were tagged as under “red” category by the Comelec for having a history of hostilities during past electoral exercises.