4 parliamentary districts pushed for Basilan, Tawi-tawi

A member of the Bangsamoro Parliament is proposing the creation of four parliamentary districts each for the provinces of Tawi-Tawi and Basilan due to the principle of equitable representation in the plan to distribute the 32 districts among the provinces in BARMM.

MP Amir Mawallil proposed to increase the number of parliamentary districts in Tawi-Tawi and Basilan from three to four each during the public consultation of Parliamentary Bill No. 267.

“Under the proposed measure, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan were allocated only three legislative districts each, when both provinces have more than 400,000 population based on the 2020 census by the PSA. These figures could be much higher today,” said Mawalil who is from Tawi-tawi..

“And our qualification for a parliamentary district should be one district for at least 100,000 population. So based on this standard, there should be four districts each for Tawi-Tawi and Basilan,” he added.

“And Tawi-Tawi and Basilan have ethnic minority populations in dire need of representation," Mawalil said.

The elections for MPs in  the Bangsamoro Parliament will be in 2025. 

The people will vote for an 80-seat chamber. Forty will be from the party system, 32 from the parliamentary districts, and eight from among sectoral representatives.

Under PB No. 267, the apportionment of the districts will be three in Tawi-Tawi, three in Basilan, eight in Lanao del Sur, seven in Sulu, four in Maguindanao del Norte, four in Maguindanao del Sur, two in Cotabato City, and one in the Special Geographic Area (SGA) in North Cotabato.

“District representation is essential in a democracy. Valuable resources such as infrastructure allocations, health and social services, scholarships, livelihood aid, and many more. Four district representatives for Tawi-Tawi and Basilan can do more for the provinces than just three each,” Mawallil said. —NB, GMA Integrated News