President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is supporting the Senate version of a bill, which seeks to postpone the first Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary elections this May to October.

In a Viber message to Palace reporters last Wednesday, the Office of the Executive Secretary said Marcos has certified as urgent the latest version of Senate Bill No. 2942, which will defer the BARMM partial elections from May 12 to October 13.

Prior to its revision in its second reading, SB 2942 proposed moving the BARMM parliamentary elections to August 11 this year.

The House of Representatives counterpart version of the postponement bill was approved on third and final reading. It was supposed to reset the Bangsamoro parliamentary elections to May 2026.

Last November, Marcos said he wanted to defer the BARMM parliamentary elections to address the effect of the decision of the Supreme Court to separate Sulu from BARMM. Marcos said the decision will require creating a new province for eight municipalities of Sulu, which is unlikely to be completed by May. DMS