Category: Philippine Star

Anthology ASEAN Architecture Festival 2026 will put the Southeast Asian nation at the centre of this year’s architecture and design conversation.

Taking place on October 2-4, 2026, at Intramuros, Manila, the festival will bring together architects, designers, cultural practitioners, government leaders, institutions, students, communities and the public under the theme ‘Shared Ground: Architecture of Care, Culture, and Collective Futures.’

Organized by WTA Architecture and Design Studio in partnership with the City of Manila, Intramuros Administration, and National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), this year’s Anthology Festival is envisioned to be a significant industry, civic and cultural event-one that connects architecture and design with heritage, public life, governance and the future of Southeast Asian cities. The festival is supported by main sponsors Boysen, Fasclad, Glassbox, Omni and Midea.

With 128 speakers from the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and beyond, Anthology 2026 will feature three international keynotes, 14 Filipino × ASEAN conversations, cross-sector roundtables, ten regional installations, open presentations and evening forums, with an expected audience of 4,000.

‘Anthology is making ASEAN the starting point for this edition-not simply as a geographic category, but as a field of shared conditions, ideas and possibilities,’ says William Ti Jr., festival curator and founder and principal architect of WTA Architecture and Design Studio. ‘Shared Ground asks what we can learn from one another while respecting what makes each city and community distinct.’

Since 2016, Anthology has held seven editions, welcomed more than 20,000 participants and brought together 455 speakers from the Philippines and around the world. This year’s regional focus marks a new chapter for the festival, expanding its role as a platform for Southeast Asian exchange and thought leadership.

Shared Ground: Architecture for a region in transition

‘Shared Ground’ reflects the belief that architecture is more than buildings. It is also about how people live together, how public spaces are shaped, how communities respond to climate and change, and how culture and memory are carried into the future.

The festival will explore three interconnected ideas over three days. Each day connects one of the festival’s themes to a defining question and an international keynote.

October 2 – Care: What is owed to a building and its people after ribbon-cutting?

Pritzker Prize laureate Shigeru Ban will open the festival with a keynote on Care. His humanitarian work with paper structures, temporary buildings and disaster-relief housing demonstrates how emergency architecture can be innovative, dignified, resource-conscious and rigorous.

The discussion will connect to the Philippines’ own experience with emergency architecture. In 2020, WTA delivered 75 quarantine facilities with more than 3,500 beds, raising questions about how architecture can respond quickly without sacrificing dignity-and what responsibility remains after a crisis.

October 3 – Culture: How can architecture hold shared memory without fixing it into a static image?

The keynote for Culture will be announced in the coming days.

The day offers a timely lens for considering heritage and public life in Intramuros, where preservation, identity, tourism, everyday use and urban change exist in constant conversation.

October 4 – Collective Futures: How do we negotiate the futures of our cities across differing needs and finite resources?

Ole Scheeren will close the festival with a keynote on Collective Futures. Through his work across Asia, Scheeren has explored density as a social condition to be designed, demonstrating how large-scale buildings can support community and shared life-not merely accommodate floor area.

For a region urbanising at extraordinary speed, the closing conversation will examine how cities can grow while remaining inclusive, connected and collectively shaped.

‘At the heart of Anthology 2026 is the belief that ‘buildings only become architecture once they are shared.’ A building becomes architecture through the lives that unfold in it, the communities that use it and the public life it supports,’ says Ti.

ASEAN designing its own future

Anthology 2026 does not propose a single Southeast Asian model. Manila is not Jakarta; Bangkok is not Singapore. ASEAN cities have different histories, climates, economies, cultures and needs.

Instead, the festival will create a platform for the region to learn from itself while remaining grounded in the specificity of each place. Government and public-sector participation is expected to represent approximately 15 percent of the audience, bringing policy, governance and the public interest into direct conversation with design and development.

‘We are not looking for one imported answer to the future city,’ says Ti. ‘The region is already generating its own knowledge and models. Anthology is a place to make those ideas visible, put them into conversation and ask what we can build together.’

Intramuros as shared ground

For this edition, Intramuros will serve as more than the festival venue. The 400-year-old walled city will become a protagonist in the program, with talks, installations, roundtables and evening forums unfolding across its historic spaces.

Audiences will encounter questions of memory, access, material, public space and collective life while moving through a living urban environment where heritage and change meet.

‘We want the festival to leave the conference hall,’ says Ti. ‘In Intramuros, the city itself becomes part of the discussion. It is not a backdrop; it is shared ground.’

The program will include:

Anthology Talks: Fourteen Filipino × ASEAN conversations on themes including Culture is not a Style, Architecture Without Heroes and Care Without Control.

Shelter Dialogues: Roundtables pairing an ASEAN architect, a Filipino architect and a government leader in sessions such as Public Good, Private Power and Governing the Future We Share.

Ground Works: Ten Filipino × ASEAN collaborations installed throughout Intramuros, including Thresholds of Access, Material Memory and Local is Future.

Anthology RAW: An open platform for emerging work, unfinished ideas, new research and perspectives, with moderated critics responding to each presentation.

Living Anthology Exhibition: A living exhibition showing the evolving positions on Shared Ground throughout the course of the festival, on view until December at the Centro de Turismo Intramuros.

After Dark: Evening forums bringing architecture into conversation with culture, history and public life after sunset.

Publications: WTA Shared Ground Artbook, narrated by Potato, the studio cat, explores eleven WTA projects in a playful and accessible way. Field Notes is a post-festival publication documenting the ideas and moments collected from the festival.

Anthology ASEAN Architectural Festival 2026 is designed for architects and designers, but it is equally an invitation to students, artists, educators, cultural workers, policymakers, developers, communities and anyone invested in the future of cities.

The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL), boosted by its chief backer SportsPlus, held to a rousing success its annual All-Star Festivities last Saturday at the Ynares Center in Montalban, Rizal.

In a news release, SportPlus said it helped the MPBL stage a memorable All-Star experience for fans by deploying a full production team to document, organize, and overall support the annual extravaganza.

The festivities were highlight by an afternoon exhibition game between the North and South Division Executives, with the North and South All-Stars battling to an 89-89 draw.

Hours before the festivities began, SportsPlus personnel were already at the venue, setting up activation booths, checking broadcast equipment, and rehearsing their various roles, including the SportsPlus dancers who kept fans entertained throughout the event.

By 1 p.m., the registration booth and fan zone were open, giving supporters the chance to mingle, take photos, and get up close with their favorite MPBL stars.

The SP dancers added energy to the festivities during the intermissions, becoming part of the action in several events.

Gilas Pilipinas legend Ranidel de Ocampo and stand-up comedian GB Labrador, both SportsPlus Balyahan hosts, scored and witnessed Joe Gomez de Liano’s highlight reel during the Slam Dunk Competition.

Halftime brought even more excitement as fans had the chance to win shirts through Pop Up Shot/Bazooka and Molten basketballs tossed into the crowd by MPBL Commissioner Emmer Oreta, with help from Stepping Curry and Lebwrong James, the NBA impersonators portraying Stephen Curry and LeBron James, as well as SportsPlus mascot Kalaw D’Kalbaw.

But among the biggest attractions was the Clutch Time Challenge.

The challenge gave two contestants a chance to win P50,000 by completing four shots: a layup, free throw, 3-pointer and half-court shot, in 45 seconds.

‘SportsPlus is proud to be part of this year’s MPBL All-Star festivities. As the Official Title Partner of the MPBL, we are committed to creating a more engaging and memorable experience for fans through our activations, interactive games, and giveaways,’ said SportsPlus Head of Brand Marketing Paul Macalindong.

I spent yesterday at the Likhang Filipino Exhibition Hall in Pasay, seated as a panelist at the ASEAN MSME Summit where around 400 trade officials, business leaders and entrepreneurs from across the region gathered under the theme ‘Navigating the Future Together: Building Future-ready ASEAN MSMEs.’ Summits like this can be theater. This one, I want to argue, is something more, because it sits on top of real machinery that the Department of Trade and Industry has been quietly building.

Start with what DTI under Secretary Cris Roque has actually done, not just announced. The department has taken the trade fair, long dismissed as a ribbon cutting exercise, and turned it into an industrial policy tool. There is now a dedicated expo for nearly every sector where Filipinos excel: the National Food Fair, the first ever DTI Beauty Fair, the Malikhaing Pinoy Creative Expo and more. These are not vanity events. They are matchmaking venues where a chili paste maker from Bicol meets a supermarket buyer, where an animator meets a studio.

Then there is money, the perennial complaint of every Filipino entrepreneur. Through the Small Business Corporation, DTI’s own lending arm, an MSME can now borrow up to P5 million with no collateral required and, as Secretary Roque herself told the summit, with a full year of grace on both interest and principal. New facilities like Purchase Order financing, which lets a business borrow against a confirmed order rather than against land it does not own, and Enterprise Rehabilitation Financing were introduced to make SB Corp. genuinely accessible. For a founder with a signed contract but an empty bank account, that is the difference between growing and merely surviving.

And crucially, DTI is thinking beyond our shores. The plan to build SME hubs through the Philippine Trade and Investment Centers, working closely with our embassies worldwide, means our commercial attachés become salesmen for Filipino products, not just report writers. Every attaché in Tokyo, Dubai or Los Angeles should wake up asking one question: which Filipino company can I help land a customer today? If that culture takes hold, it changes everything for a small exporter who cannot afford a foreign sales office.

Now, the honest part. None of this matters if it does not scale. Too many entrepreneurs in the provinces still do not know SB Corp. exists. Too many still find the paperwork of exporting more terrifying than the competition. Government programs in this country have a habit of being excellent in Manila and invisible in Mindanao. The test of Secretary Roque’s DTI is not the launch, it is the last mile.

Which brings me to ASEAN, and why this summit matters beyond the photo opportunities. The numbers are staggering: about 70 million MSMEs make up 97 to 99 percent of all establishments in ASEAN, employ 85 percent of the regional workforce and produce roughly 45 percent of its GDP. Southeast Asia is not an economy of conglomerates. It is an economy of sari-sari stores, food stalls, workshops and startups. Whoever designs the region’s rules for small business designs the region’s future.

For Filipino MSMEs, ASEAN integration cuts both ways, and we should say so plainly. Yes, it means 680 million potential customers, a regional digital market that the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement aims to grow from $300 billion today to $2 trillion by 2030.

But it also means Vietnamese coffee, Thai snacks and Indonesian fashion competing on our own shelves. Integration rewards the prepared. Our job is to make sure Filipino businesses are among the prepared, which is exactly why financing, mentorship and digital tools cannot be nice-to-haves. They are armor.

The summit’s concrete deliverables give me some optimism. The Philippines is launching the ASEAN Center of Excellence for MSMEs for regional business training and AMEN 2.0, a digital hub connecting entrepreneurs with mentors and investors, alongside sustainability training with the Global Reporting Initiative, a regional MSME financing report and a practical guide for selling online across borders. Notice what these have in common: they are tools, not communiqués.

Here the private sector deserves its due, and no one more than Joey Concepcion. As chair of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council for 2026, the Go Negosyo founder has insisted that ASEAN must be relevant to ordinary citizens, declaring that ‘ASEAN is not for big business alone.’ This is his second turn at the helm; during the 2017 chairmanship he created AMEN, the region’s first legacy mentorship program for MSMEs, and 20 years of Go Negosyo have made mentorship a national habit.

His Trabaho and Negosyo initiative, combining job fairs with free entrepreneurship mentoring in malls nationwide, gets the economics exactly right: MSMEs generate more than half the country’s jobs, so every business we help start is employment policy by another name.

That is the real stake here. We talk about MSMEs as if they were a sector. They are not. They are the employment engine of this country and this region. A new bakery hires four people. A new logistics startup hires 40. Multiply that across 70 million enterprises and you understand why the fastest anti-poverty program ever invented is a thriving small business.

The Philippines holds the ASEAN chair this year. We have the programs, the financing windows, the attachés abroad and a private sector champion with regional convening power. What remains is execution, and urgency. As Concepcion himself put it, ‘The goal of ASEAN will not work if we cannot reach the last micro-entrepreneur.’ Reach that last entrepreneur, and we will not just have hosted a summit. We will have started a hundred thousand businesses, and with them, a million jobs.

The Cebu provincial government suspended classes yesterday in Talisay and Mandaue cities as well as in Minglanilla, Consolacion and Liloan towns due to ‘acutely unhealthy’ air quality brought by haze from Indonesian wildfires.

‘Everyone is encouraged to limit outdoor exposure and take necessary precautions while the air quality remains unhealthy,’ the provincial government said.

As of 4 a.m. on Sunday, the air quality in Metro Cebu was nearing the emergency threshold.

Yesterday, the air quality was recorded as ‘very unhealthy’ in the cities of Cabadbaran in Agusan del Norte, Iligan in Lanao del Norte and Talisay in Cebu.

The cities of Butuan, Koronadal, Malita, Digos, Davao, Tagoloan, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga and Toledo experienced air that was ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups.’

People were advised to wear face masks and the vulnerable population urged to stay indoors.

‘Just get those rebounds.’

Those were the instructions that big man Lance Aurigue followed to the letter from Lyceum coach Jamike Jarin in lifting the Pirates to a pulsating, come-from-behind 88-87 victory over Mapua yesterday in NCAA Season 102 at the PhilSports Arena.

Aurigue did pluck those rebounds like picking apples from a three and finished with a game-high 13 including four offensively late in the fourth quarter that led to scoring opportunities for him – nine points in total – in the clutch that propelled LPU to its first win in two starts.

‘He was just huge for us,’ said Jarin of Arique, who ended up firing 21 points, another match-best.

Lyceum also produced a couple of heroes in Renz Villegas, who scattered 17 points, and Matthew Rubico, who had 15 markers including a booming triple from way, way deep.

It was another heartbreaker for the Cardinals, as they blew another one following last week’s 64-65 defeat to the Jose Rizal Bombers at the Filoil Center.

The duel wasn’t pretty, though, as both squads missed 23 free throws – 11 from LPU and 12 from Mapua – but it cost the Cardinals even more as they couldn’t cash in on their opportunities for the second straight outing.

Mapua had one last chance to steal the win but Sherwin Concepcion misfired his last-gasp attempt from beyond the arc.

Later, Perpetual Help trounced San Sebastian, 86-74, to improve to 2-1. The Stags dropped to 0-3.

Several land-related challenges have prompted the Zobel family’s ACEN Corp. to abandon plans for two solar power projects in Quezon and Zambales.

In a regulatory filing yesterday, the company said its subsidiaries Abagat Energy Corp. and SolarAce2 Energy Corp. voluntarily relinquished their respective solar operating contracts.

Abagat Energy had planned to develop a 336-megawatt (MW) solar farm in Pagbilao, Quezon, but faced significant land acquisition challenges affecting the project site.

SolarAce2, meanwhile, had proposed a 120-MW solar project but cancelled the plan due to site access constraints.

ACEN said the cancellation of the two contracts would have no material impact on the group’s operations.

‘These projects are still in the early stages of development, have not reached a final investment decision and neither subsidiary has commenced any commercial operations,’ it said.

Across the Philippines, ACEN has more than 2,500 MW of renewable energy capacity either operational or under construction.

Last week, the company executed a short-term loan agreement of up to P1 billion with another subsidiary, Giga Ace 6 Inc., which is developing the 344.5-MW Quezon North Wind Power Project in Quezon.

Targeted for completion by 2027, the project marks the first phase of ACEN’s broader wind power development in the province.

Quezon North Wind is expected to generate about 1,730 gigawatt-hours of clean power annually

The Philippines delivered another historic milestone at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games after the Rebecca Cyril Torres, Samantha Veguillas and Ysabelle Arrogante clinched the women’s team kata bronze medal of karate on Tuesday at the Aichi-Nagoya 20th Asian Games at the Toyohashi Gymnasium here.

The quartet beat Southeast Asian rival Thailand’s Ramitar Terananon, Monsicha Sakulrattanatara and Phatcharin Plangplai, 4-1, for the Philippines’ first-ever medal in team kata event in the Asian Games.

The Filipinas set the tone early with a flawless 5-0 sweep of Cambodia’s Sreynuch Puthea, Oun Sreyda and That Chhenghorng, but went down to a 0-5 loss to powerhouse Iran in the semifinals.

‘Wala na kami inisip kung sino kalaban,’ Arrogante said. ‘Basta we claim sa amin ang bronze.’

The emotional triumph was the culmination of years of quiet sacrifice.

‘It has been a long journey. Dami hirap ng mga teammates,’ an emotional Torres said. ‘Marami losses over the years, pero perform lang, laban lang hanggang dulo.’

Adding fuel to their fire was the news they received just a day prior that the Philippines officially qualified for the Karate World Cup this November in Hangzhou.

“Na-inspire kami, kaya itutuloy pa namin ito, yung magandang resulta,’ Arrogante said.

Head Coach Sonny Montalvo commended his athletes for their immense dedication, highlighting how the girls temporarily left their families and put their university studies on hold just to train.

The trio also credited their success to the unwavering support of their coaches and officials, specifically former Karate Pilipinas president the late Pocholo Veguillas, father of current president Richard Lim, also Team Philippines chef de mission in these games.

Karate has contributed consecutive bronze medals in the Asian Games starting with Junna Tsukii in Jakarta 2018 and Sakura Alforte in Hangzhou 2023.

Alforte, an individual kata specialist, missed this year’s Asiad due to a new ruling requiring all squad members to compete in the team event.

‘Big boost sa karate. Nakita natin magaling ang Pilipino, tiwala lang,’ he said. “Maka-inspire din ito sa delegation dito. Dami pa lalaban

A major transport group is set to hold a two-day nationwide transport strike on September 29 and 30 as rising fuel prices continue to squeeze drivers’ earnings.

Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) announced on Tuesday, September 22, that at least 70,000 jeepney drivers and operators are expected to join the strike, along with groups representing workers, the urban poor and commuters.

PISTON National President Mody Floranda said affected routes and areas in Metro Manila include:

Cubao-Marikina-Antipolo

Commonwealth

España

Monumento

Novaliches

Baclaran

Pasig

Taguig

Sucat

Alabang

Floranda appealed for understanding from commuters who may be affected by the strike, stressing that rising fuel prices also drive up the cost of basic goods and services.

“Tayo ay nananawagan sa ating mga commuters, sapagkat sa bawat pagtataas ng presyo ng petrolyo, ang kaakibat niyan ay pagtaas ng mga bilihin at halos hindi na makasabay ang maliliit na sahod at kita ng ating mamamayan,” Floranda said in an interview with dzMM.

(“We are appealing to our commuters because every increase in fuel prices comes with higher prices of goods, while our people’s low wages and incomes can barely keep up.”)

Among the groups’ demands are the immediate suspension of value-added and excise taxes on fuel products, the scrapping of the Oil Deregulation Law, higher wages for workers and a fare increase.

Floranda said other transport groups are welcome to join the strike at the end of the month.

Three major fuel price hikes this September have driven up diesel prices by a total of P18.31 per liter, kerosene by P16.67 and gasoline by P15.25.

The latest round of increases took effect Tuesday, with diesel rising by P8.82 per liter, kerosene by P6.47 and gasoline by P4.88.

The Department of Energy has said upward pressure on fuel prices could persist until the end of the year as tensions in the Middle East continue to affect global oil supply.

Truth, fairness, common sense.

These are the three basic principles in interpreting the Constitution and in enforcing our laws.

The Philippines has about 15,000 laws – one for every two practicing lawyers, two-thirds of registered lawyers.

We have too many laws, too many lawyers, too many politicians – ironic, given the state of lawlessness and the rampant sense of impunity of our public officials. Impunity is freedom from punishment and accountability, no matter how gross or outrageous one’s misdeeds.

One public official who has an inimitable sense of impunity is Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte, 48, and a lawyer.

Before the Senate impeachment court, Sara is accused of four crimes:1) Misusing or pocketing P612.5 million of people’s money and producing 5,000 fake receipts to account for the missing monies; 2) bribing her subordinates so she could dictate on them during biddings (the DepEd she headed had the highest budgetary allocation); 3) unexplained wealth of P6.7 billion despite earning only P24 million as a public official and engaging in a sprawling range of businesses despite a constitutional ban against a vice president engaging in any business and 4) plotting to kill the President, the First Lady and the former speaker.

The late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. declared martial law, ruled like a dictator for 14 years out of 20 (1965-1986) and was said to have killed 3,000 victims. He was ousted by People Power I.

Sara has committed gross violations of the Constitution. Instead of being removed as VP, pronto, she thinks she should be the next president. Thus, she ignores the Senate impeachment court, procures the most brazen and rude defense counsel one can buy with one’s billions and denounces the Senate body as being under the control of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. That’s impunity.

Stung, the Senate impeachment court now wonders how many senators must vote to convict her. Is it two-thirds or 16 of all 24 senators?

Or is it lower than 16 since not all 24 senators can act as senator-judges by now? Two senators, Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta, are in jail for alleged plunder and suspended from acting as senators; that makes the ‘all’ down to 22. One, Bato dela Rosa, is a fugitive from justice, hunted down by an international court for allegedly killing up to 30,000; 24 becomes 21. Another one, Loren Legarda, cannot be located because she is afraid of being arrested for alleged plunder. Her family’s solar company promised to roll out 12,000 megawatts of power and did not deliver; that’s plunder; 24 becomes 20. Two-thirds of 20 (.66×20) is 13.

The ruling Senate majority is already 13. If it wants to, the majority can convict Sara now. Based on the evidence presented so far.

Comes now retired Chief Justice Art Panganiban with the principles of truth, fairness and common sense.

Plainly, common sense means only 13 of 20 senators need to vote to convict.

Fairness means letting other views prosper. If one is whimsical or capricious and refuses to hear the other side/s, that’s grave abuse of discretion. The Supreme Court could be asked to intervene.

SC should not intervene. One, the senators are elected nationwide. Two, the SC justices are appointed by just one man – the president. And three, the justices and the president are subject to impeachment.

By the way, the Manila Overseas Press Club will have Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian as its guest of honor and speaker at the ‘MOPC Senate Night’ on Friday, Sept. 25, 6 p.m., New World Hotel ballroom, Makati. I am chairman of the MOPC, Asia’s oldest press club.

Saturday, 11 a.m., Sept. 26, at the Manila Polo Club, the crusading Sen. Panfilo Lacson will update the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) on the impeachment trial and the nation’s biggest scam ever, flood control. Retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno is chair of Philconsa.

Back to CJ Panganiban. In his presentation before the Senate Sept. 16, the eminent jurist made major points:

1. An impeachment trial is sui generis, one of a kind, unique because it has legal and political aspects. The trial is a traditional courtroom. Yet the senator-judges are not magistrates. Unaccustomed to the lonely perches of judges and justices. 2. Given this unique nature, how then should the Senate interpret the constitutional mandate that ‘… No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate?’ (Constitution [Article XI, Section 3(6)]).

Per CJ Art , there are two ways to interpret the voting threshold: 1) verba legis – defined by the Court in Francisco v House of Representatives (Nov. 10, 2003, per J Conchita Carpio-Morales, en banc) as ‘… the words used in the Constitution must be given their ordinary meaning except where technical terms are employed’ and 2) ratio legis est anima, defined in League of Cities v Comelec (Dec. 21, 2009, per J Presbitero Velasco Jr., en banc) as ‘the reason of the law is the soul of the law.’

3. With verba legis, the plain reading of two-thirds of 24 senators is mathematically 16. In the abstract, mathematics is an exact science. But reality is not always an abstract equation. Illustratively, one small drop of water added to another drop is not always two drops; it may result in one bigger drop of water.

Ratio legis est anima considers the intent and purpose of the constitutional provisions, the circumstances in which they operate and the goals they seek to achieve.

Which of these should our senator-judges employ? Neither. The Senate represents the electorate; it must reflect the common sense of the people, anchored on truth and fairness.

Trial is a search for truth through studying the documents and hearing the witnesses. In person. Fairness refers to ‘due process.’

Only through active, meaningful participation can the senators render a decision that is fair to the parties, fair to their peers and ultimately, fair to the people.

Elected members of the Bangsamoro parliament on Tuesday, September 22, urged voters in the autonomous region, so fragmented by the September 14 polls, to reunite and support the joint peace and sustainable development programs of the regional government and state agencies in their provinces and cities.

The territory of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao encompasses five provinces, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, where BARMM’s regional government center is located.

The physician Lampi Pandi, elected as representative of one of the nine parliamentary districts in Lanao del Sur, told reporters on Tuesday that reconciliation of all sectors in BARMM divided by the September 14 regional polls will hasten the joint peace and development thrusts in the autonomous region of the Bangsamoro government and national line agencies.

‘It is healing time now. The parliamentary electoral exercise is over. Let us now work together in sustaining the gains of the Mindanao peace process involving the national government and our communities,’ Pandi, a former three-term mayor of Poona Bayabao town in Lanao del Sur, said.

Two newly-elected lawmakers who are both lawyers, Jet Lim of Tawi-Tawi and Naguib Sinarimbo, who both first served as members of the interim BARMM parliament based on appointments by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., separately told reporters that officials of their respective parties also want a full closure to the political animosities among sectors that supported different partisan blocs during the region’s September 14 regional polls.

Lim belongs to the United Bangsamoro Justice Party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Sinarimbo is spokesperson and Cotabato City chapter chairperson of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party.

The president of the Bangsamoro Federalist Party is the region’s appointed interim chief minister, Abdulraof Macacua, who was elected on September 14 as representative of a parliamentary district covering parts of Cotabato City and several barangays in Maguindanao del Norte province.

‘We don’t hold any hostility against those who supported candidates of other parties,” Sinarimbo, a former BARMM local government minister, said.

Sinarimbo, a Maguindanaon, was also elected as representative of one of the three parliamentary districts in Cotabato City, the capital of BARMM. Lim, who is of Tausug descent, was elected as a nominee for bloc representation of their party to the 80-member Bangsamoro parliament.

Hanie Bud, a scion of a Yakan clan in one of the towns in Basilan, also elected as a nominee for group representation in the parliament of their party, the BARMM Government Coalition, said he will also help foster patience and understanding among partisan groups in the autonomous region.

‘Political and religious tolerance among BARMM residents is vital in keeping, nurturing the initial gains of the development initiatives of our regional government,’ Bud, a former three-term mayor of Maluso town in Basilan, said.

Lim said he does not harbor bitterness against voters in his province, Tawi-Tawi, who voted for bloc representatives to the parliament of other parties.

‘We want peace and unity now among the communities that supported rival political parties and rival individual candidates for seats in different districts during the September 14 regional electoral exercise,’ Lim said.