More than 5,000 employees are at risk of losing their jobs following Sulu’s shocking exit from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) ahead of its first parliamentary elections in May 2025.

As leaders debate the far-reaching political ramifications of the Supreme Court’s ruling excluding the province from the region, the BARMM government is in a quandary over whether to keep the 5,733 employees.

They include teachers, nonteaching personnel, doctors and nurses based in Sulu who are drawing their salary from the BARMM. For 2024, the budget for their salary is P3.4 billion. 

“They’ll receive their pay for Sept. 1-Sept. 15. Their pay for Sept. 16 onward has been the subject of discussion of the Cabinet for the past few days,” BARMM Cabinet Secretary Mohd Asnin Pendatun told journalists in Quezon City on Monday.

Humanitarian reasons

In the end, the Cabinet decided to pay their salaries until the end of 2024 for “humanitarian reasons,” and given the fact that these have already been budgeted for the whole year, said Pendatun, who also serves as BARMM spokesperson. He added, however, that the employees had to sign a document stating their willingness to return their salary if auditors issue a notice of disallowance.

Whether the employees get to keep their jobs in 2025 is another matter.

Asked if the Sulu provincial government could absorb the employees in 2025 onward, Pendatun said: “That’s an option, but I’m not sure that they’re ready.” He recalled that when the BARMM took over from its precursor, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, it took them a year “to phase out the employees.”

Many other projects involving Sulu are ongoing and may be discontinued in view of the Supreme Court’s ruling that is immediately executory, according to Pendatun.

In a ruling written by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the high court upheld on Sept. 9 the constitutionality of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) establishing the BARMM, but ruled that Sulu is not part of the autonomous region.

Sulu had petitioned against its inclusion in the BARMM after the majority of its residents voted against the BOL in a 2019 plebiscite. Nevertheless, the province was included in the BARMM.

The high court’s ruling sent shockwaves across the autonomous region which is now in the thick of preparations for the election of its first set of members of parliament in May 2025, which coincides with the midterm elections.

Irony

The irony of the BARMM losing Sulu—the cradle of the region’s struggle for an independent Bangsamoro—was not lost on some political leaders.

“Then as now, it will remain the symbol of the Moro’s fight against repression,” House Deputy Minority Leader Mujiv Hataman of Basilan said, noting that many Moro rebels and mujahideen had come from Sulu. 

It may leave the door open for other provinces to also leave the BARMM, warned Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong. “The cracks in this collective struggle for autonomy may undo the decades of effort that brought us to this point. We all find ourselves back in square one,” he said.

For now, Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan may have to abandon any plan of becoming the autonomous region’s chief minister. Until the high court’s ruling, he was widely expected to lead the BARMM Grand Coalition to win seats in next year’s parliamentary elections and get himself elected as chief minister.

It was Tan who had fiercely opposed Sulu’s inclusion in the BARMM.  

The Commission on Elections has reset the filing of certificates of candidacy for BARMM parliament seats to Nov. 4-9, from Oct. 1-8. Of the 80 parliament seats up for grabs in next year’s elections, seven will be representing Sulu.

“We now have seven district seats that are hanging,” Pendatun told reporters. “The ideal setup is we have to amend the laws that need to be amended, such as the districting law, so that these district seats can be transferred to other provinces.” But he said it would be “tedious.”

The other option proposed by Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia is to push through with the elections but keep Sulu’s district seats unfilled.

“If that happens,” Pendatun said, “we will have a 73-member parliament by 2025.”

Parliament member Michael Midtimbang has filed a resolution urging the Senate and the House of Representatives to reschedule the BARMM elections.

He said this would allow the Bangsamoro Transition Authority to amend the Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 58 so that Sulu’s seven districts could be allotted to remaining territories within the BARMM.

So far, there is no such bill pending in Congress.

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