2 BARMM lawmakers push for more women in parliament

COTABATO CITY – As the regional legislative body is finalizing the draft Bangsamoro Electoral Code, two Members of Parliament have pushed for the increased women and youth participation in the 2025 parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Members of Parliament (MPs) Amir S. Mawallil and Rasol Y. Mitmug Jr made the proposals as the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) resumes deliberation Parliamentary Bill No. 29 or the proposed Bangsamoro Electoral Code (BEC).

MPs Mawallil and Mitmug are both proposing amendments to PB No. 29 seeking to increase the number of women nominees and making it mandatory to nominate more women for the parliamentary elections.

Under the draft BEC, Mawallil noted that it stated: “At least ten percent (10 percent) of the nominees in the list shall, preferably, be qualified party members who are women.”

“While the above-cited provision of PB No. 29 speaks of a minimum number of women nominees, it is our position that the same is not sufficient,” Mawallil and Mitmug said in a statement.

“To put it in perspective, in a list of 40 nominees, the provision only calls for four nominees out of the 40 names, or 10 percent of the nominees, to be women,” the two lawmakers added.

“We believe that 10 percent is too small a number to bring about meaningful change in support of the women’s agenda in the Parliament. And as the wording of the proposed bill says, it is ‘preferably’ and not even mandatory. So we propose an increase in the number of women nominees and change the language of PB No. 29 to make it mandatory,” they added.

Mawallil stressed that the draft code should reflect the spirit of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) that created the BARMM.

The BOL mandates the Bangsamoro Government to ensure the inclusion of women’s agenda and the involvement of women and the youth in the electoral nominating process of the political parties.

Mitmug agrees with Mawallil and proposes a “zipper rule” in the political parties’ nominations of their representatives.

“Parties should nominate men and women in an alternating sequence. If your first nominee is a man, then the second nominee should be a woman, and so on and so forth. This way, we can achieve an almost equal number of men and women in Parliament, as envisioned by the BOL,” Mitmug said.

“This also implements the spirit of proportional representation in electoral systems, as adopted by the BOL,” he added.

Mawallil said in the event a permanent vacancy occurs in the party representative seat, filling the vacancy should also be gender-sensitive.

“If the previous representative is a man, then the replacement should also be a man. The same goes if the previous representative is a woman; she should be replaced also by a woman,” he added.

Mitmug said they are also proposing that women’s representation be not limited to nominees in Parliament, but also to representation in political party committees.

“If we were to truly have effective women’s representation in the Bangsamoro Government, it should start in the political party committees, deeply ingrained in the machinery of where leadership training really begins,” Mitmug said.

Elected, not appointed

The two MPs also want to amend PB No. 29’s process of “selecting” or “appointing” sectoral representatives from the youth, women and other marginalized sectors.

Both cited the BOL that clearly states that selection sectoral representatives should be through an election.

Section 7 of Article VII of the BOL provides, “The Parliament shall determine the manner of election of the reserved seats and sectoral representatives.”

In explaining his stance, MP Mawallil said: “The law is clear, it talks about election, which refers to a democratic vote that has been put to an entire electorate. However, Section 22, Article VI of PB No. 29 made use of the word ‘selection’ instead of ‘election.’”

Mitmug said provisions of the electoral code cannot supersede the BOL and go against its contents.

“As the famous legislative phrase goes: the spring cannot rise above its source. So the electoral code cannot go beyond its source of power and mandate, which is the BOL,” he said.

Both Mawallil and Mitmug, a lawyer, were reappointed members of the interim parliament.