Soldiers and police officers, backed by armored combat vehicles, have been highly visible along key thoroughfares across Cotabato City since Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (John Unson)
Police and military personnel, backed by combat vehicles, have been deployed across Cotabato City to secure the inaugural session on Friday of the newly elected 80-member Bangsamoro parliament.
Army and police officials said on Tuesday that heightened security would remain in place after the Oct. 30 session to maintain peace and order in the city’s 37 barangays, following requests from residents, business groups and peace advocacy organizations.
The inaugural session is expected to set the stage for the election of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s chief minister, who will also oversee the region’s ministries and support agencies.
A bloc of 46 lawmakers aligned with interim Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua is expected to play a key role in the leadership contest.
Macacua’s appointment as interim parliament member and chief minister, made by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., expires Friday. He was elected to represent a parliamentary constituency covering barangays in Cotabato City and neighboring Maguindanao del Norte province during the Sept. 14 regional elections.
Ahod Ebrahim, chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who served as interim chief minister from 2019 to 2025, also won a parliamentary seat. His supporters want him to return to the region’s top executive post under the newly elected parliament.
However, all five BARMM governors recently expressed support for Macacua to remain chief minister. The governors — Tucao Mastura of Maguindanao del Norte, Ali Midtimbang of Maguindanao del Sur, Mamintal Adiong Jr. of Lanao del Sur, Mujiv Hataman of Basilan and Ysmael Sali of Tawi-Tawi — declared their preference during a gathering in Davao City about two weeks ago.
Macacua is president of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party, which also counts more than half of BARMM’s 116 municipal mayors and local executives in its three component cities — Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato City — among its members.
“We have enough soldiers scattered around Cotabato City as part of our security efforts related to the October 30 inaugural session of the now regular, duly mandated Bangsamoro regional parliament,” Brig. Gen. Edgar Catu, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters Tuesday.
Catu made the statement while inspecting military and police personnel securing routes linking Cotabato City with nearby towns in Maguindanao del Norte.
The 6th Infantry Division, Cotabato City Police Office, Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and 6th Marine Rifle Battalion of the 1st Marine Brigade are coordinating security operations for the session.
Police personnel led by Cotabato City police director Col. Jibin Bongcayao and officers under Police Brig. Gen. Christopher Abecia, chief of the regional police office, have been deployed along major thoroughfares in Cotabato City, the seat of the BARMM regional government.
“We are not taking chances. We will do our best to make October 30 and the days after peaceful, safe for all,” Bongcayao said.
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