The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has deferred the holding of the Bangsamoro Parliamentary Election (BPE) on March 30, 2026.

In a media interview on Wednesday, Comelec Chairperson George Garcia said the postponement was due to a lack of time to prepare for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary polls.

“The Comelec En Banc, at the end of our session, approved a resolution whereby we officially declared the postponement of the March 30, 2026 Bangsamoro Parliamentary Election. Legally and operationally, we can no longer hold the BPE on March 30,” he said.

“Operationally, we can no longer afford the one month and two weeks to hold the BPE.”

Garcia said the Comelec will wait for Congress to pass a law “to fix a new date for when our election will be held.”

“This [BPE] must continue. That’s why, the decision whether it will proceed or not is not up to the Comelec. Just give us the law, we will do everything to have the elections, whether it’s manual or automated. As long as there is enough time,” he said.

With the BPE postponement, Garcia said the calendar of activities “is no longer valid”, including the implementation of the gun ban, which was supposed to start Wednesday night.

“It will no longer be implemented, because it is based on whether there is an election on March 30,” he said.

Garcia assured that the funds for the BARRM parliamentary elections remain intact.

“There was no reduction in our funds. What our Congress did, what we spent, about PHP1.2 billion for the printing of ballots for the October 13 [2025] Bangsamoro Parliamentary Election, was returned to us in full by our Congress, by our President for our General Appropriations Act for 2026,” he said.

“Currently, our funds are intact. We’ve not spent it, we will still wait for a new date for when the election will be held.”

Garcia is hoping that BPE will not be held next year as the country prepares for the May 2028 national and local elections (NLE).

“I hope it will not be 2027. And I also hope it will not be 2028, which coincides with the NLE so that our countrymen can focus, especially on the election of the President and Vice President,” he said. (PNA)