Turncoats will lose parliament seat in Bangsamoro region — transition panel member

Being a political butterfly would mean losing your parliament seat in the newly established Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) said Thursday.

Lawyer Lanang Ali, Jr., Majority Leader of the BTA which governs the BARMM until the conduct of May 2022 polls, has vowed that there will be a strict observance of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) provision which states that any elected political party representative in the Bangsamoro parliament “who changes political party affiliation during the representative who changes political party affiliation during the representative's term of office shall forfeit the seat in the parliament.

Likewise, the BOL—which also established the BARMM in place of the ARMM for expanded land and water jurisdiction, fiscal autonomy, increased share in national government resources, among others, also states that “if the elected party representative changes political party affiliation within six (6) months before an election, the same person shall not be eligible for nomination as party representative under the new party or organization.

“Nung nanalo si President [Benigno] Aquino [III], lahat ng local officials pumunta sa LP. Nung nanalo naman ang PDP (President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016), sa PDP naman lahat. Ngayong, bawal ang balimbing sa Bangsamoro,” Ali said during a forum on the challenges facing Bangsamoro Region held in Makati.

“Magandang improvement ‘yung provision na ito kasi kung palipat-lipat ka ng political party, it will destroy of genuine political party. Natuto na kami, kaya sinolusyunan namin,” Ali added.

Under the BOL, representatives of political parties will comprise one half of the members of the Parliament and will be elected through a systems of proportional representation based on the Bangsamoro territorial jurisdiction.

Any organized group in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region may also register as a political party with the Bangsamoro Electoral Office, with qualifications to be prescribed by the yet to be drafted Bangsamoro Electoral Code.

A registered political party shall submit to the Bangsamoro Electoral Office before the election a manifestation of intent to participate in the parliamentary election of party representatives in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, incorporating therein a list of nominees, ranked from one to 40, from which party representatives shall be chosen in case they obtain the required number of votes.

No person shall be nominated more than once.

The number of seats allocated for each political party shall be based proportionately on the percentages of votes obtained by each political party as against the total votes obtained by each political party and as against the total votes cast in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region  for the election of party representatives. — MDM, GMA News