COTABATO CITY — Followers from across Central Mindanao of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) endorsed candidates running for the Bangsamoro parliament in the regional polls on Oct. 13.

Two ranking MNLF officials who are both members of the Bangsamoro parliament, lawyer Randolph C. Parcasio and Nur Misuari’s daughter, Nurredha I. Misuari, separately told reporters, during a dialogue at the campus of the Cotabato City State University on Sunday morning, that their regional party, Mahardika, is keen on fostering interfaith solidarity among Muslims, Christians and the indigenous non-Muslim communities.

“We are also focused on socio-economic programs meant to boost the productivity of residents of the autonomous region,” said Ms. Misuari, a representative to the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament of the MNLF, which her father helped establish as an armed secessionist group in 1972.

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) covers the provinces of Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato.

Mr. Parcasio and Ms. Misuari and a senior MNLF official in Maguindanao del Sur, Yahodza S. Simpal, had separately told reporters that their Mahardika Party also aims to help address peace and security issues besetting far-flung areas in BARMM via cross-section peacebuilding initiatives.

Mr. Parcasio said the MNLF is also trying its best to have the island province of Sulu returned to the core territory of BARMM after the Supreme Court took it out via a ruling in 2024 based on a petition for its separation from the autonomous region by then Sulu Gov. Hadji Abdusakur M. Tan, Sr.

Mr. Tan, who is touted as Sulu’s “political kingpin,” was elected vice-governor of the province during the May 12 elections.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. had recently issued an order fusing Sulu with Administrative Region IX, which groups together four cities and three large provinces in the Zamboanga peninsula.

“Certain members of the Bangsamoro parliament had drafted resolutions like knocking on the hearts of the members of the House of Representatives to help us work out Sulu’s return to the Bangsamoro autonomous region via a plebiscite,” Mr. Parcasio said.

He said Sulu, historically, is the birthplace of the MNLF that waged a long-time uprising for self-governance by Southern Moro communities in the context of Philippine sovereignty, via an autonomous regional government.

“We are for the return of Sulu to the Bangsamoro region,” Mr. Parcasio said. — John Felix M. Unson