Forty Six Bangsamoro MPs Sign a Coalition Pact in Davao City, Five More Than Needed to Elect the First Regular Chief Minister

What Macacua announced in Davao City

Interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua, who chairs the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, held a press briefing in Davao City on Wednesday, October 14, one month to the day after the region's first regular parliamentary election. He said 46 of the 80 elected Members of Parliament had signed coalition documents and would form the Government of the Day, the term the Bangsamoro Organic Law uses for the bloc that organizes the executive.

"After the formal assumption of the Government of the Day, we will pursue a program for the unity of all Bangsamoro," Macacua said. He described the bloc as a mix of political parties, local government units, ethnolinguistic groups and former revolutionary organizations, and said the incoming government would answer to every province and sector in the region, including communities that voted against its members.

Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr., secretary general of the BARMM Grand Coalition, whose Serbisyong Inklusibo Alyansang Progresibo party won six district seats, stood with him. So did Jose Lorena of the Raayat Democratic Party and Leticio Datuwata, supreme chieftain of Timuay Justice and Governance and one of the two Non Moro Indigenous Peoples representatives in the incoming Parliament.

Macacua thanked the signatories and the national government, which he said had respected the region's institutions, and said the coalition was still talking with other MPs about joining. He closed with the Arabic phrase "Wa billahi Taufiq wal hidaya," a prayer for guidance.

Why 41 is the number that matters

The September 14 vote produced what the Manila Times called the region's first hung parliament. The BFP won 31 seats, 16 through the party list and 15 in districts. The United Bangsamoro Justice Party, the political arm of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front led by former interim chief minister Ahod Ebrahim, took 30, including most of the sectoral seats. The BARMM Grand Coalition won 15. The Raayat Democratic Party and the Progresibong Bangsamoro Party won one seat each, and two seats are reserved for Non Moro Indigenous Peoples.

Under the Organic Law and Republic Act 12317, which moved the election to September 14, the 80 MPs take office at noon on October 30. Once the Wali opens the session, the first order of business is the election of a Speaker by a majority of all members, which means 41 votes. The Speaker then presides over the election of the chief minister, who will lead the Cabinet until June 2031, followed by the deputy speakers and administrative officers.

If nobody reaches 41 on the first ballot, the rules send the top two candidates into a runoff on the floor. The 46 signatures are meant to make that scenario unnecessary. The figure first surfaced on October 2, when the BFP announced that it had the support of 46 MPs together with unnamed partners. A pairing of the BFP's 31 with the Grand Coalition's 15 adds up to exactly that number, though neither party has published the list of signatories.

Four days of planning came first

The signing closed a four day strategic planning workshop in Davao City that 42 of the 46 attended. The sessions produced a draft of legislative and executive priorities for the first 100 days of the regular Parliament and for its first five years.

Interior and Local Government Minister Jordan Bayam told reporters the group had agreed on a common peace and development framework covering Muslim, Christian and indigenous communities. "This time, this is not just a BTA, but this is an elected parliament. So the task and the expectations of our people is so high," he said, referring to the appointed Bangsamoro Transition Authority that governed the region from 2019. He added that a majority without a shared agenda would not be enough.

At least one UBJP district winner was in the room. Lampa Pandi, who won Lanao del Sur's fourth district under the party, said he came for the direction of Parliament rather than for partisan reasons. "I am not playing politics here," he said. Tawakal Midting, who won Maguindanao del Sur's first district, sat with him.

Adiong said the Grand Coalition's purpose is a lasting peace and the continuation of the peace process. He said the group had asked President Marcos in person at Malacañang to finish the decommissioning of MILF combatants before the administration's term ends so that the exit agreement between the front and the national government can be signed. He said the BGC remains open to dialogue with the UBJP and the BFP.

The UBJP has not signed

The UBJP, with 30 seats, is the one large bloc outside the agreement. Mohagher Iqbal, the party's vice president and the MILF's first vice chairman, answered the BFP's October 2 claim the same day in a Facebook post titled "Real versus unreal." He called the claim of having the numbers "more a matter of optics than political reality" and wrote that in negotiations nothing is agreed until it is agreed upon and formally signed.

Iqbal said he personally favors a rainbow coalition that would take in the parties with one or two seats and give the Moro National Liberation Front, none of whose parties won a seat, a reason to support the arrangement. He said the UBJP was "deeply aggrieved" by the deaths of five supporters and the wounding of 43 others in violence linked to the election, and had asked the families to trust the rule of law. A united rather than fractured BARMM, he wrote, could be one of the President's lasting legacies.

The party is backing Ebrahim for chief minister. A farmers' group led by Maguindanao del Norte board member Datu Michael Abas Kida rallied behind him earlier this month, calling him the figure best placed to heal the divide and carry the peace process through.

Bayam, speaking on October 11 at a kanduli for his brother, BFP MP Zulfikar Ali Bayam, warned every party against pressuring or coercing elected members. Only MPs vote for the chief minister, the Speaker and the other officers, he said, and any party that joined the election accepted the rules of a parliamentary system.

Malacañang's response and the next two weeks

President Marcos issued a statement within hours of the announcement. "We respect Parliament's authority to determine its leadership in accordance with the Bangsamoro Organic Law," he said, adding that the national government looked forward to working with whatever government Parliament formally constituted. He congratulated the elected MPs and called the September 14 election a milestone in the region's pursuit of self rule and lasting peace.

The statement reads as a signal that the Palace will not weigh in on the choice of chief minister, a question Iqbal had raised when he wrote that the outcome would turn on how the national government reads its interest. The BFP is backing Macacua for the post.

What remains is the floor vote. The 46 signatures are a pledge, not a ballot, and the Speaker and chief minister are elected by roll call on October 30. Until then the coalition's list of names is private, the UBJP has two weeks to make its own case, and the Grand Coalition's request on decommissioning sits with the President.