FROM BULLETS TO BALLOTS

In the dust of an election day in the Bangsamoro, two images contend for the nation’s soul.

In the first, tanks roll past voting centers. Soldiers carrying Armalites stand watch. Gunfire erupts outside a precinct.

In the second, mothers, farmers and young people wait in line for hours to cast their ballots.

One image is about the machinery of power. The other is about the courage of ordinary people.

Yet many Filipinos allow the first image to erase the second. We see the weapons and casualties, then allow election violence to confirm a comfortable, inherited prejudice: that Muslim Mindanao is simply a land addicted to war.

That is not merely lazy.

It is dangerous.

The weapons tell a story about entrenched warlords, rival power blocs and institutions still too fragile to stand without military support. They tell us nothing about the faith, character or heart of the ordinary mother, farmer or student who came to vote.

That distinction is everything.

The inaugural BARMM parliamentary elections were a dual test of our national maturity.

The first was political: could a struggle fought with guns for generations finally make the transition to governing through ballots?

The second was cultural—and it belonged to us: could the rest of the Philippines stop treating Muslim Mindanao as a permanent security threat and start treating Muslim Filipinos as equal architects of this republic?

Look at the numbers before passing judgment.

Nearly 2.4 million citizens registered to claim their voice. Despite the intimidation, gunfire and challenge of navigating an unfamiliar parliamentary system, turnout reportedly reached 84 percent.

Think about what that turnout means under fire.

That is not the behavior of a people addicted to conflict.

That is the brave, undeniable behavior of a people demanding peace.

“GENERALLY PEACEFUL”

The elections were described as “generally peaceful.”

More than 20,000 soldiers and police officers were deployed. At least five people were reported killed in election-related violence. Cotabato City was placed under Comelec control following gunfire near a polling site.

In Maluso, Basilan, voting continued into a second day after pre-filled ballots were discovered. Comelec printed replacement ballots for approximately 16,000 affected voters.

What, exactly, would it take for us to become angry?

Tama na ang pagtrato sa karahasan na parang ordinaryong dekorasyon ng eleksyon.

Violence is not Mindanao culture. It is not destiny. It should never be accepted as the admission price for democracy.

When tanks and assault rifles become part of the election-day landscape, what we call peace is not yet peace.

It is a fragile truce surrounding the vote.

THE VOTING ENDED. THE BARGAINING BEGAN.

No party won an outright majority in the 80-member parliament.

The Bangsamoro Federal Party, led by Chief Minister Abdulraof Macacua, secured 31 seats. The United Bangsamoro Justice Party, associated with former chief minister and MILF chairman Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, won 30.

Neither reached the 41 seats required to govern alone.

The BARMM Grand Coalition, which received about one-fifth of the party vote, could now become the kingmaker.

The people made their choices in public. Their next government may be assembled in private.

Coalitions are normal in a parliamentary system. Secret horse-trading is not.

If ministries, appointments and budgets are divided according to family alliances and political accommodation rather than competence, BARMM will merely import one of Manila’s worst habits into its new parliament.

That is not transformation.

That is traditional politics wearing a new barong.

AUTONOMY IS NOT IMMUNITY

BARMM has genuine achievements.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, family poverty incidence in the region fell from 26 percent in 2023 to 12.8 percent in 2025—the largest decline among the country’s regions.

Those numbers represent families with a better chance of eating properly, keeping children in school and surviving without depending entirely on political patrons.

Peace can produce progress.

But progress is not a permission slip.

Criticizing the Bangsamoro government is not an attack on autonomy. Asking where public money went is not sabotage. Demanding competent officials is not disrespect for the peace process.

Autonomy does not mean immunity from scrutiny.

Former combatants who chose democratic politics deserve credit for laying down their weapons. Once they occupy public office, however, they become public servants and must answer difficult questions like everyone else.

A party logo cannot conceal patronage. The language of peace cannot sanitize entitlement.

Accountability does not destroy peace.

Corruption does. Exclusion does. Abuse of power does.

OUR TRANSITION

Bangsamoro leaders are not the only ones being tested.

When a Christian commits a crime, we blame the criminal. When violence involves a Muslim, an entire religion is too often made to carry the guilt.

One Christian commits murder; he is a murderer.

One Muslim commits murder; suddenly Islam is on trial.

Some of the people who help run my home are Muslims from Mindanao. I know them as hardworking, caring and deeply protective of their families.

I say this not to present myself as their character witness—no Filipino should need one—but because daily proximity exposes how absurd our inherited stereotypes are.

They are not exceptions to some frightening rule.

The frightening rule is our prejudice.

Two transformations must now succeed.

Bangsamoro leaders must prove that autonomy will not reproduce dynasties, patronage and agreements made beyond public view.

The rest of us must stop defining Muslim Filipinos by the violence they have endured.

The Bangsamoro people fought for something better. They voted for something better.

Their leaders must now deliver it.

And the rest of us must finally see them for what they have always been:

Not strangers. Not stereotypes. Not threats.

Filipinos.