COTABATO CITY ---- Army and police officials, representatives from the Commission on Elections and other state agencies and local executives crafted a compact on Wednesday, September 9,binding them to help ensure peaceful Bangsamoro parliamentary polls in Maguindanao del Norte on September 14.

There are election hotspots in Maguindanao del Norte’s 12 towns, some of which are locked in bloody family feuds, called “rido” in the local vernaculars, involving big Moro clans that have members who are elected municipal and barangay officials known for keeping firearms both for protection and as status symbol.

The election security cooperation agreement was reached after a four-hour dialogue on Wednesday at Camp Siong coin Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, where the headquarters of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division is located.

The 6th ID covers all of the 12 towns in Maguindanao del Norte, where some barangays were scenes of hostilities involving partisans during past synchronized local, congressional and national electoral exercises.

The division also has battalions in Maguindanao del Sur province and in the eight newly-established towns in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area, which is under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, but are inside Cotabato, a component-province of Region 12.

Wednesday’s election-related security dialogue at Camp Siongco was jointly presided over by Brig. Gen. Ricky Bunayog, acting commander of 6th ID, Presidential Assistant for Bangsamoro Transformation Noel Baraceros of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, Brig.Gen. Jemuel Siason from the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Tucao Mastura.

Mastura, presiding chairperson of the multi-sector Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Peace and Order Council, was accompanied to Camp Siongco then by members of their Sangguniang Panlalawigan, among them Michael Sinsuat, and municipal officials from Datu Blah Sinsuat, asea side town in west of their province.

In a meeting with reporters after the event, Bunayog said their paramount concern is to enable voters in Cotabato City and all towns inside 6th ID’s territory to freely vote for their chosen candidates for seats in their parliamentary districts and the nominees, by blocs, of different parties, to the 80-seat BARMM parliament.

“Every voter must be able to exercise the right to vote freely, safely, without fear. Ensuring that is a shared responsibility of all sectors, government entities and peace-advocacy groups supporting the efforts of the Commission on Elections to make clean and safe the September 14 elections in the area of responsibility of the 6thInfantry Division,” Bunayog said.

Siason, a senior official of PRO-BAR, said the election security missions of all BARMM police units are coordinated closely with the OPAPRU, the Coordinating Committees on the Cessation of Hostilities of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and with leaders of the Moro National Liberation Front.

The MILF and the MNLF have separate peace agreements with the national government and have members in BARMM’s 80-member regional lawmaking body, whose figurehead is Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua.

Macacua, who is president of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, is himself aspiring for a parliamentary seat covering barangays in Cotabato City and in nearby towns in Maguindanao del Norte.

Mastura, a first term governor, had told reporters that officials of the municipal governments in Maguindanao del Norte shall cooperate with the joint election security thrusts of PRO-BAR, whose director is Police Brig. Gen Christopher Abecia, the 6th ID, and the Comelec’s regional office in BARMM.

BARMM’s territory encompasses five provinces, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, where its regional government center is located. The September 14 BARMM parliamentary polls shall be the region's first since it's creation in 2019, replacing then the 27-year less empowered, now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.