BARMM polls: Who are competing in Cotabato, the regional center?

CEBU, Philippines – Cotabato City, the seat of the Bangsamoro regional government, is seeing a competitive race among seasoned public officials, educators and other candidates, some of whom have ties to local political dynasties ahead of the seven-year-old region’s first parliamentary elections on September 14. The regional center of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has 140,738 registered voters across its three parliamentary districts, based on the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) official count in July. Cotabato’s 2nd parliamentary district logged the highest number of registered voters at 53,542 people while the 1st and 3rd districts have 44,305 and 33,224 registered voters, respectively. Three parliamentary seats are up for grabs in the city, whose local government until recently was led by a mayor, Mohammad Ali “Bruce” Matabalao, who supported the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the political party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). However, internal rifts in the MILF and the resignation of Matabalao from the UBJP have brought much speculation as to how well the MILF’s party is going to fare in Cotabato City’s 37 barangays. Here are the bets in the three parliamentary districts of Cotabato City: 1st District: Ex-Comelec chair, ex-seaman, MP COTABATO CITY 1ST DISTRICT RACE. From left: Member of Parliament (MP) Romeo Kabuntalan Sema, Danilo Ramos Liggayo, and former Comelec chairman Sheriff Manimbayan Abas. Photos from their Facebook. In the 1st parliamentary district of Cotabato City, former Comelec chairman Sheriff Manimbayan Abas is up against Danilo Ramos Liggayo, a former seaman, and Romeo Kabuntalan Sema, an incumbent member of the interim Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA). Abas, who is the first Mindanaoan and first Muslim to serve as Comelec chairman, is with the UBJP. He is the nephew of Mohagher Iqbal, the BARMM minister of education who played a key role in the peace process as MILF’s negotiator. Liggayo is the bet of the Bangsamoro Empowerment and Social Transformation Party (BEST Party). The party is led by Al-Rashid Balt, the director general of the Bangsamoro Ministry of Public Order and Safety. Aside from being a former seaman, Liggayo had served under the Office of the President for Mindanao during the presidency of Fidel Ramos. Sema, a member of the BTA, is the vice chairman for political affairs of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) central committee. He also served as BARMM minister of labor and employment from 2019 to 2022, and is former chairman of the Regional Reconciliation and Unification Commission (RRUC) of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Sema and former Cotabato City mayor and incumbent BARMM Minister of labor and employment Muslimin Sema are relatives. Muslimin currently leads the Bangsamoro Party (BAPA). Romeo Sema, however, is the Cotabato City 1st parliamentary district candidate of the Mahardika Party (MP), the party of MNLF founder Nur Misuari. 2nd District: Former councilors, ex-barangay chairman, and an MP COTABATO CITY 2ND DISTRICT RACES. From left: MP Naguib Gani Sinarimbo, former Cotabato City councilor Christina Tan Chua, former Cotabato City councilor Madatu Brahim Datumanong, and former Bagua 1 barangay chairman Zahrumin Andong Midtimbang. Photos from their Facebook. Cotabato’s 2nd district race has former local government officials competing with an incumbent member of parliament. Under UBJP, former Bagua 1 barangay chairman Zahrumin Andong Midtimbang. The Midtimbang family name is associated with a known political clan from Datu Anggal Midtimbang town, Maguindanao del Sur. The governor of Maguindanao del Sur is Ali Musa Midtimbang who succeeded Mariam Mangudadatu. His son, Datu Nathaneil Midtimbang, is the mayor of Datu Anggal Midtimbang town. Also in the running is ex-soldier and former Cotabato City councilor Madatu Brahim Datumanong, the 2nd district bet of Muslimin Sema’s BAPA. The Datumanong name has strong links to the Ampatuans but a prominent figure that is deeply tied to the surname is the late Simeon Ampatuan Datumanong, erstwhile governor of the formerly undivided Maguindanao. Former Cotabato City councilor Christina Tan Chua is also joining the race. Unlike Midtimbang and Datumanong who are running under a party, she is running as an independent candidate. BARMM Member of Parliament Naguib Gani Sinarimbo, a lawyer, is also in the race, running under the Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP) led by fellow Member of Parliament Tomanda Antok. Sinarimbo was a former Bangsamoro minister of interior and local government and a former spokesperson of the regional government. The lawyer was a member of the MILF’s technical working group and its peace panel’s legal team in the early 2010s. His wife is Rosslaini Alonto-Sinarimbo, Bangsamoro director-general of the Ministry of Trade, Investment, and Tourism (MTIT). 3rd District: Ex-village leader and educators COTABATO CITY 3RD DISTRICT RACES. From left: MP Tomanda Antok, former Poblacion 3 barangay official Reynaldo Largo Canen, and former Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) deputy minister Hashim Baluno Manticayan. Photos from their Facebook. Under the BEST Party, former barangay official of Poblacion 3 Reynaldo Largo Canen is seeking the parliamentary seat of Cotabato City’s 3rd district. Canen is up against two candidates who are both educators with ties to the UBJP and BFP, respectively. They are Hashim Baluno Manticayan, the official representative of the UBJP, and Tomanda Antok, founding chairman of the BFP. Manticayan, a former deputy minister of the BARMM Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), is a member of the University of the Philippines Institute of Islamic Studies Alumni Association (UP-ISSAA) Incorporated and president of the League of Bangsamoro Organizations (LBO), a coalition of 600 civil society groups in the BARMM. Antok is an incumbent member of the parliament who has served as a special assistant to the minister of interior and local government, and serves as chairperson of the Bangsamoro committee on basic, higher, and technical education. Antok is a member of the Mindanao State University (MSU) System Board of Regents and a former vice chancellor and ex-faculty of the MSU-Maguindanao’s College of Fisheries. The member of parliament left UBJP due to disagreements over leadership in the party. He later established the BFP on March 2, 2026. – Rappler.com