<\/p>\n
SENATE President Francis \u201cChiz\u201d G. Escudero has asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to appoint replacements for the 35 members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) seeking to run in the first ever parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) set in May 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are 80 parliamentary seats up for grabs in next year\u2019s election in the region, and 35 out of the 40 present members of the BTA have filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs) with the Commission on Elections (Comelec).<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n With these filings, Escudero said, the 35 BTA members are deemed resigned and should vacate their positions in accordance with the Constitution and election laws.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFairness dictates that officials running for office should be deemed resigned. Hindi pwede manatili ang sitwasyon na ang kandidato ay nakaupo at nakapwesto dahil ang pangako natin ay ang magkaroon ng pantay at malinis na halalan. Fairness and avoidance of conflict of interest dictate nothing less,\u201d said Escudero, who is a lawyer.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Questions have been raised about the implementing rules and regulations of the Bangsamoro Electoral Code, which allows appointed officials of the BARMM who file for candidacies to remain in their respective posts.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It also states that officials who lost in the elections are not covered by the one-year ban on appointments and can be given named to other posts immediately.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cItong dalawang provision na ito ay paglabag sa Saligang Batas. Ang express provision ng Constitution ay nagsasabi na hindi pwede makilahok sa partisan political activity ang sinumang official sa civil service, permanent man o appointed in a co-terminus capacity,\u201d Escudero said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cKung ang pinanghahawakan nila ay \u2018yung provision ng Bangsamoro Electoral Code, para sa akin void ab initio din \u2018yun dahil unconstitutional \u2018yun from the beginning. Dahil klaro na labag \u2018yun sa express provision, hindi lamang ng Omnibus Election Code, kundi pati na rin ng ating Saligang Batas,\u201d he added. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Escudero maintained that in order to ensure a \u201cclean, honest, believable and peaceful\u201d polls, the BTA officials seeking parliamentary seats should step down.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cUnang hakbang ito, sa aking paniniwala, ng pagkakaroon ng pantay at malinis na halalan sa darating na Mayo man o kung ipagpapaliban ito sa anumang petsa man,\u201d the Senate Chief said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Escudero has earlier filed Senate Bill No. 2862 seeking to move the BARMM election to May 11, 2026 in view of the Supreme Court ruling that excludes the province of Sulu from the regional group after its residents voted against its inclusion during a plebiscite. A similar measure has been filed in the House of Representatives by Speaker Martin Romualdez.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He, however, said that the filing of the separate proposals would not affect the ongoing preparations being undertaken by the Comelec for the BARMM parliamentary election. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDahil BTA pa rin ang governing body sa BARMM. Maraming pagpapasyang gagawin sa mga susunod na buwan na hindi dapat magamit sa pulitika o mapaboran ang isang panig laban sa kabilang panig,\u201d Escudero said, as he expressed optimism that the President will make the replacements soon.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SENATE President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero has asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to appoint replacements for the 35 members of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10001,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9999\/revisions\/10001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}