COTABATO CITY (June 12, 2026) — Another group of Muslim and Christian local executives, led by the mayor of this city, joined on Friday, June 12, the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, one of the 16 that are now gearing up for the first ever September 14, 2026 parliamentary polls in the autonomous region.
The now second term Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao, members of the city’s Sangguniang Panglungsod, among them its presiding chairperson, Vice Mayor Johair Madag, and councilors Anwar Malang, who is a human rights lawyer, the longtime broadcast journalist Florante Formento, Abdillah Lim and Datu Raiz Sema took oath then as members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, in the presence of its top officials, during a symbolic rite at a function facility here.
Sema is the son of Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslim Sema. His brother Datu Zawawi, incumbent barangay chairman of Tamontaka in Cotabato City, also pledged political allegiance, beside him, during Friday’s mass oathtaking of new Bangsamoro Federalist Party members.
The Sema siblings had told reporters that they have the permission of their patriarch, who is chairman of the central committee of the Moro National Liberation, to join the Bangsamoro Federalist Party. The MNLF has representatives in the 80-seat parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
The Bangsamoro Federalist Party, the Serbisyong Inklusibo, Alyansang Progresibo, the Bangsamoro Party of the MNLF, the Bangsamoro People’s Party, which was founded by Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman, are the four largest and most well-organized, from among the 16 regional partisan blocs that have candidates for the BARMM parliament during the September 14 regional electoral exercise.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front also has its United Bangsamoro Justice Party, which has many members who had left in recent months and joined the Bangsamoro Federalist party, whose president, Tomanda Antok, is member of the region’s lawmaking body.
Matabalao and Madag separately said, after they were sworn in by Antok as new members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, that they decided to join the group for its extensive peace and development objectives, one of which is to foster sustainable development by fostering solidarity among Muslim, Christian and the non-Moro indigenous communities in the autonomous region.
The two officials were running mates, both candidates of the MILF’s UBJP, during the May 12, 2025 local elections.
“I officially, politely resigned from my membership with the United Bangsamoro Justice Party to join the Bangsamoro Federalist Party,” Matabalao pointed out in a message during Friday morning’s event in uptown Cotabato City.
Matabalao’s office covers 37 vote-rich barangays in Cotabato City, home to mixed Muslim, Christian and non-Moro ethnic Teduray communities.
More than half of the 117 mayors in BARMM and provincial officials in its five provinces, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, have joined the Bangsamoro Federalist Party during separate caucuses in the cities of Marawi and Zamboanga City last month.
“All of them fully understood that as a political party, we don’t have animosity with other political parties in the Bangsamoro region. We are promoting cultural, religious and political solidarity among the communities in the autonomous region,” said parliament member Naguib Sinarimbo, chairman of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party’s Cotabato City chapter.
Photo shows Cotabato City officials, led by Matabalao, now in his second term as mayor, when they took oath together as members of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party. []
