BASILAN, Philippines --- The influential Darul Ifta in Basilan had assured of support for eight leaders in the province elected as members of the Bangsamoro parliament during the September 14 elections in the autonomous region.
The Basilan Darul Ifta, also known as the provincial Islamic House of Opinions, is a confluence of preachers together functioning as religious counsels to local Muslim communities. It also has counterparts in the four other provinces of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur and Tawi-Tawi, and in the three cities in BARMM, Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.
Each of the Darul Ifta in BARMM's five provinces and three cities also supports extensively the peacebuilding activities of local government units, the police, the military and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity.
Local executives in Basilan separately confirmed to reporters on Thursday that Aboulkhair Tarason, the grand mufti, or top preacher in the Darul Ifta in their province, and his deputy, Aleem Munir Muluk, had signed a formal statement assuring of their support for the peace and development efforts of the eight leaders in the province elected as BARMM lawmakers during the first ever September 4 parliamentary polls in the autonomous region.
The five-year term of the eight newly-elected parliament members from across Basilan, Rima Hassan, Paisal Sali, Jay Salliman and Abrar Hataman, each as representatives of the four parliamentary districts in the province, and Haber Asarul, Dan Asnawi, Surayda Hataman and Hanie Bud, all as nominees for bloc representation in BARMM’s parliament of their respective political parties, shall start on October 30.
Tarason and Muluk pointed out in their official statement, copies of which were received on Thursday by reporters covering BARMM’s regional government center in Cotabato City, that it is important for them and Basilan's district parliamentary representatives and the four other residents of the province, who were elected as nominees for party representation in the 80-member law-making body, to cooperate on peace and development initiatives.
The Darul Ifta in Basilan, functioning as part of the BARMM regional Darul Ifta, had supported the efforts of the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade, the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and local executives in securing, via backchannel dialogues, the surrender of 498 local members of the Abu Sayyaf terror group from between 2016 to 2024.
Officials of units in Basilan of the military’s Western Mindanao Command and the Basilan Provincial Police Office declared the province in early 2025 as totally cleared from the presence of the Abu Sayyaf, a feat that earned for its 11 towns and two cities the collective tag "new investment frontier" in the Bangsamoro region.