The presentation encapsulates issues and challenges that leaders of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) face and new leaders of the BARMM, with the upcoming 2025 parliamentary elections, have to confront. It identifies a number of policy concerns and advocates general recommendations in the interest of relatively surmounting the historical and lingering socio-cultural and economic and political concerns in the Bangsamoro region in particular and Mindanao in general. These are challenges entrenched in present-day mosaic democracy and heterogeneous development. They require the state, not simply the BARRM to redefine itself and adopt an institutional framework of governance that would allow the expression of democracy in kaleidoscopic forms and a system of governance that is inclusive, comprehensive, and participatory towards the fulfilment of the Bangsamoros’ hopes, aspirations, and opportunities.
Rizal G. Buendia is an independent political analyst, consultant, and researcher in Southeast Asian Politics and International Development based in Wales, UK. He is the Philippine Country Expert of the Global V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Non-Resident Fellow of Stratbase ADR Institute for Strategic and International Studies (ADRi) is an independent, international research organization focused on the in-depth analysis of economic, social, political and strategic issues influencing the Philippines and the Indo-Pacific region, and Honorary Fellow of the Bangsamoro Parliament’s Policy Research and Legal Services of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
He was a former Teaching Fellow at the Politics and International Studies Department and the Department of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London; former Chair and Associate Professor at the Political Science Department, De La Salle University-Manila; Senior Lecturer at the National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG)-University of the Philippines-Diliman; and Special Lecturer at the Department of Economics and Politics, Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Sta Mesa, Manila.
He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Political Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS) under the NUS by-research Ph.D. scholarship; grantee of the TODA Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research’s Doctoral Fellowship Program and of the Southeast Asian Studies Regional Exchange Program, Toyota Foundation and the Japan Foundation Asia Center’s research fellowship Program. He earned his Master of Public Administration (MPA) with Highest Distinction at NCPAG-University of the Philippines-Diliman.
Click here to proceed to the conference page.
Bangsamoro Research and Legal Network 