The former local government minister of the Bangsamoro region, who was legal adviser to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front during its peace talks with Malacañang, filed his candidacy as parliamentary representative for the second district of Cotabato City on Thursday, November 7, 2024
The lawyer Naguib Sinarimbo is aspiring for a seat in the 80-member Bangsamoro regional parliament as candidate of the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, or SIAP Party, not an ally of the MILF’s United Bangsamoro Justice Party.
Led by Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mohammad Khalid Adiong, the SIAP is the pioneer, or first ever regional political party in the autonomous region, recently reported many times over by radio stations and Mindanao newspapers as having more than 600,000 documented supporters and members in the five provinces and three cities in BARMM.
Sinarimbo had also served as executive secretary to the regional governor of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao from 2009 to 2012.
An official of the Moro National Liberation Front, incumbent regional parliament member Romeo Sema, is SIAP’s candidate for parliamentary representative of the first district of Cotabato City.
Cotabato City is the capital of BARMM, which was created via a plebiscite in 2019 as part of the government-MILF peace process, replacing then the 27-year ARMM, which has lesser administrative and fiscal powers if compared to the present Bangsamoro regional government.
The lawyer Ray Sumalipao, regional director for BARMM of the Commission on Elections, was quoted in radio reports in Central Mindanao on Friday as saying that they will continue preparing for next year’s first ever Bangsamoro parliamentary elections, which can only either be postponed and reset to a later date via an act of Congress. (Nov. 6, 2024)
