COTABATO CITY — With the historic Bangsamoro parliamentary election concluded, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) must unite to press forward with governance, an official said.
Raby Angkal, BTA secretary-general, called for unity among BTA members, also known as the interim Bangsamoro Parliament, tasked with governing the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) during the transition period.
Angkal framed the September 14 vote as the “fulfillment of the decades-long struggle for self-governance” under the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL).
READ: LIST: Winning party, sectoral representatives in BARMM polls
He congratulated voters, teachers, the Commission on Elections, the security sector, civil society, the ulama, and former combatants — “our Mujahideen and Mujahidat” — for choosing “the ballot over the bullet.”
“The campaign and election (are) over. Now is the time for healing. It’s time to reconcile,” he said in a statement. “Forgive past political differences and embrace one another as brothers and sisters … The parliament must be a home for healing, unity, not division. A parliament divided cannot deliver.”
He said that Moro, non-Moro, settler, Indigenous Peoples, Christian, and Muslim communities are all stakeholders in the new 80-member parliament.
“Our diversity is our strength. Our unity is our survival,” Angkal said.
Angkal said the transition itself is drawing to a close, but “the work for genuine transformation begins.”
READ: BARMM polls: MILF chair proclaimed, calls for unity
He said the incoming parliament needs to pass laws that deliver development, cut poverty, create jobs, improve education and health, strengthen the Islamic faith of Muslim Bangsamoro, and make progress felt “in every barangay from Tawi-Tawi to SGA.”
The Office of the Secretary-General pledged a “smooth, transparent, and professional” turnover of legislative records, systems, and institutional knowledge from the appointed BTA parliament to the first elected parliament.
“This victory, your victory, belongs to the Bangsamoro people,” Angkal said./coa
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