COTABATO CITY --- Local executives across the Bangsamoro region are certain that their chief minister, Abdulraof Macacua, will remain as figurehead of the 80-seat parliament via nomination during the first session of lawmakers elected during the September 14 elections.

Macacua, president of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party (BFP), is presently functioning as parliament member and chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao based on an appointment in March 2026 by President Ferdinand Marcos. Jr.

The regional spokesperson of BFP, Naguib Sinarimbo, who is a lawyer and also an appointed member of the BARMM parliament, told reporters on Thursday last week, September 17, that their party had won 16 seats for bloc representation in the region’s law-making body and 16 more for their bets for parliamentary districts in the autonomous region.

BARMM, whose territory encompasses the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato and eight towns in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area in Cotabato, a component-province of Region 12, has 32 parliamentary districts.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr., Basilan Vice Gov. Hadjiman Sallliman and their constituent-mayors had separately told reporters via text message on Thursday that it is Macacua whom they want to lead the duly-elected members of the BARMM parliament as chief minister.

“We are confident he will be nominated as chief minister of the parliament by its duly-elected members,” Adiong said.

Macacua was elected on September 14 as representative of a parliamentary district covering parts of Cotabato City and several barangays in Maguindanao del Norte province. Their party spokesperson, Sinarimbo, was elected as representative of the parliamentary seat in the second district of Cotabato City, the regional capital of BARMM.

Sinarimbo said the BFP had a total of 32 candidates elected as bloc nominees and as representatives of parliamentary districts in different areas in the autonomous region.

"We shall start working as duly-elected parliament members, vested with proper electoral mandate, by the end of October," Sinarimbo said.

Adiong, now a second term Lanao del Sur governor, said six of the candidates of their regional party, the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, were also elected as representatives of six of the nine parliamentary districts in Lanao del Sur.

“All six of them shall together support, help our favored bet for chief minister, no other than Abdulraof Macacua, retain his chief minister post," Adiong said.

Adiong is also a senior official of the BARMM Grand Coalition, whose bloc nominees to the region's lawmaking body had won six parliamentary seats. The BARMM Grand Coalition is not politically hostile to the BFP, which is led by Macacua as its regional president.

Macacua only needs 41 votes from the 80 members of the parliament for him to have parliamentary imprimatur to continue functioning as chief minister of BARMM. Part of the duties of a regional chief minister is to manage the operation of all ministries and support agencies under the BARMM regional government.

Salliman, who had served as governor of Basilan for three consecutive terms prior to his election as vice governor during last year’s synchronized national and local elections, said he and his constituent-mayors, among them Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City, are certain that Macacua shall continue to function as BARMM chief minister based on nomination by duly-elected parliament members.

The United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP) of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has 15 members elected as bloc nominees to the parliament, among them former BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF’s central committee. Several UBJP candidates for district parliamentary seats were also elected during the September 14 regional polls.

Muslim and Christian religious leaders in Cotabato City, where BARMM’s 32-hectare regional government center is located, and in municipalities around had separately told reporters on Thursday that they want Macacua to retain his post as chief minister owing to his being easy to approach and responsive to their needs for services by the region’s social welfare, health and agriculture ministries.