Bangsamoro Local Governance Code

Local governments keep the powers they already hold and take on those devolved to them under Book III. Where RA 7160 and the old ARMM code listed “basic services and facilities”, this Code frames devolution by function, competence and authority, set out level by level in Book III.

Decentralisation runs from the Bangsamoro Government to its local governments. Ministries are to hand over the powers, functions and services within five years of the Code taking effect, after an assessment of each unit’s financial viability and technical capacity.

Basilan, Marawi and Cotabato City keep the full devolution they already enjoy.

The Parliament’s authority over local governments, exercised by law and regulation: how the Chief Minister supervises local officials and disciplines them, the framework for devolution and for how ministries work with local units, and how local governments raise revenue and share wealth, including transfers and assistance from the region.

Every newly elected local official completes an eight-hour onboarding program on taking office and 32 hours of continuing training within the first two years. Deliberately skipping it is a ground for discipline and disqualifies the official from the next election until the training is done. In force from the May 2028 elections.

A person related within the second civil degree, by blood or marriage, to an incumbent local official running for office may not stand in the same election for a position in the same province, city, municipality or barangay. Also from May 2028.

An incumbent may not run next for office in a different local government, except in the unit above or one within it. A chief executive may not seek the position immediately below. SK candidates may not be related within the second degree to any incumbent official in the locality.

Whoever refuses without reason to assume an office by succession faces discipline. Where a seat stays empty for 30 days and the unit cannot function, the Chief Minister or MILG appoints to it. Where a failure of elections runs past noon of 30 June, the Chief Minister (MILG, for a barangay) designates an officer-in-charge from the unit’s appointive officials.

The Chief Minister approves leave for a governor or the mayor of an independent component or highly urbanised city; the governor for a municipal or component city mayor; the chief executive for the vice; the vice for sanggunian members; the mayor for a punong barangay; the punong barangay for barangay council members. A request not acted on in five days is deemed approved, and MILG is always furnished a copy.

The Office of the Chief Minister, against officials of a province, highly urbanised or independent component city; the sangguniang panlalawigan, against those of a component city or municipality; the city or municipal council, against barangay officials. A complaint may also go straight to the Office of the Chief Minister where a fair hearing below is unlikely — a conflict of interest, or a case that would become moot.

As far as practicable, every local government keeps a website or official social media account where its sanggunian’s approved ordinances and resolutions, or their gist, are posted.

MILG keeps a public, online register of every ordinance enacted by a sanggunian and filed with the local government operations officer.

School boards follow the Bangsamoro Education Code, madaris included, and seat student representatives where practicable. Health boards draw members from the private sector and NGOs. Development councils are multi-sectoral, with a mandatory NGO seat and an indigenous peoples seat where the criteria are met. Peace and order councils may form ad hoc bodies of traditional and religious leaders, women and others to settle disputes and rido. Disaster risk councils should be at least 40% women, as far as practicable.

Councils for the protection of children, against drug abuse, for youth, women, culture and the arts, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and internally displaced persons.

Representation of indigenous peoples in local bodies is mandatory where they are at least 5% of the population but no more than half of its elected officials, or where a MIPA-recognised native title lies in the unit. Settler communities are guaranteed representation on the same 5% and 50% thresholds.

Each local government may create its own sources of revenue and levy taxes, fees and charges, consistent with the Bangsamoro Organic Law. They accrue to the local government alone.

A sanggunian may adopt Shari’ah-compliant rules for unpaid or late taxes, fees and charges, in place of interest.

Besides government property: mosques, churches, cemeteries and land used for religious, charitable or educational purposes, madaris and Tahfidz Al-Qur’an institutions included; certified ancestral domains, except portions used for large-scale commercial purposes or titled privately; land declared inaccessible through force majeure, civil disturbance or armed conflict, for up to a year at a time; and property displaced persons left behind, as a Parliament law on IDPs may provide.

Shares a local government receives are appropriated for local development and livelihood projects, and at least 80% of what comes from hydrothermal, geothermal and other energy sources goes to lowering electricity costs where the source is.

70% of the Bangsamoro Government’s share goes to local governments; 30% stays with the region.

Half, shared by all

Provinces 20% · cities 15% · municipalities 20% · barangays 15%

Half, where the resource is — in a province

Province 20% · city or municipality 45% · barangay 35%

Half, where the resource is — in an HUC or ICC

City 65% · barangay 35%

40% of the Bangsamoro Government’s share goes to local governments (BOL Art. XII, Sec. 13).

Half, where it was collected — in a province

Province 40% · municipality 30% · barangay 30%

Half, where it was collected — in a city

City 60% · barangay 40%

Half, where it was collected — no province

Municipality 60% · barangay 40%

Half, shared by all

Provinces and cities 10% · municipalities 40% · barangays 50%

• Debt service may not exceed 20% of regular income.
• At least 20% of the annual NTA goes to development projects, with the development plan furnished to MILG.
• At least 5% of the budget goes to gender and development, with a GAD plan and budget submitted to MILG.
• At least 1% each for senior citizens, persons with disabilities, the local council for the protection of children, and local road maintenance.
• Sufficient funding for nutrition, AIDS prevention, drug rehabilitation, culture and heritage, coastal management, agriculture and fisheries, community-based monitoring, climate adaptation, health emergencies and solo parents.

Revalidation

MILG revalidates every barangay, starting with those created under MMAA 25 that fell short of RA 7160’s standards. Those that meet them are entitled to the NTA; those that do not are merged with another by law or ordinance. New barangays must meet RA 7160’s requisites, not the lower MMAA 25 ones.

Tribal barangays

Where non-Moro indigenous peoples are a minority in their city or municipality but native to it, a tribal barangay may be created by the Parliament or the provincial board without meeting the usual requisites, if the area is contiguous and they are its predominant population.

Officials

Punong barangay, seven council members, an indigenous peoples or settler representative where the thresholds are met, the SK chairperson, a secretary and a treasurer. Also mandatory: a lupon tagapamayapa, child development teachers, barangay health workers, purok leaders and farm technicians. Tanods are optional, one per 200 people and no more than 30.

PaySec. 424

The punong barangay at least ₱5,000 a month, up to the first step of salary grade 14; council members, secretary, treasurer, SK chair and the IP or settler representative at least ₱3,000, up to salary grade 10. MILG subsidises a barangay that cannot pay, for up to five years. Tanods, purok leaders, child development teachers and health workers at least ₱1,000; lupon members no more than ₱2,000 a month in all.

Creation

New municipalities must meet RA 7160’s requisites, not the lower MMAA 25 ones. A tribal municipality may be created by the Parliament for non-Moro indigenous peoples who are a minority in their province, with at least 20,000 people, and is funded by the region until it qualifies for the NTA.

The council

Mayor, vice mayor and the sangguniang bayan: regular members, the liga and SK federation presidents, and three sectoral seats — women, agricultural or industrial workers, and one from the urban poor, indigenous communities or persons with disabilities (indigenous peoples where the thresholds are met). Settler communities get a further seat on the same thresholds.

Who must be appointed

A long list of offices, from treasurer, assessor and accountant to a disaster risk officer, youth development officer and persons with disability affairs officer — a focal person suffices for that last in 4th to 6th class municipalities. A tourism officer is mandatory where tourism is a major industry.

No new cities from the region

The old ARMM code’s rules on creating and abolishing cities are dropped, after the Supreme Court held that autonomous regions cannot create cities. A city does what both a municipality and a province do.

The council

Mayor, vice mayor and the sangguniang panlungsod, with the same three sectoral seats and settler seat as a municipality, and a list of mandatory offices that adds a legal officer, veterinarian and general services officer.

The board

Governor, vice governor and the sangguniang panlalawigan: regular members, the liga and SK federation presidents, the president of the federation of municipal and city council members, and the three sectoral seats.

Population offices

A provincial population officer becomes optional, but provinces that already have the office keep it for five years.

Visits and reporting

Visit every component unit at least once every six months, and may hold an “Ulat sa Bayan” on achievements, finances and the proposed land use plan.

Spending close to home

Meetings and conferences a local government pays for are held within its own territory, or the nearest place in BARMM, and outside the region only with MILG approval. Governors and city mayors sit on the Council of Leaders and the Bangsamoro Economic and Development Council.

The offences largely mirror the national code, gender and development offences aside, with fines raised to the scale of RA 10951.

The Parliament’s Committee on Local Government oversees the Code and reviews it ten years after enactment and at least every three years after. It may only be amended on the results of that review.

Convened within a month by the Chief Minister: the Senior Minister in the chair, the Minister of the Interior and Local Government as vice, the Cabinet, the chair of the Committee on Local Government with five Members, and one representative each of the provinces, municipalities and barangays. It assesses local capacity within six months and submits a devolution plan within the next three.

MILG promulgates them in consultation with the region and local governments. They came on 30 September 2025: 696 articles.

• A three-year term and a three-term limit, at every level including the barangay.
• The levels themselves — province, city or municipality, barangay.
• Doubt about a power is resolved in favour of the unit, and a tax ordinance against the unit that wrote it.
• Automatic succession: the vice takes over, then the highest-ranking council member.
• Recall on loss of confidence, on the same thresholds and once per term.
• The katarungang pambarangay, its lupon of 10 to 20, and the certificate to file action.
• Civil service coverage for appointive staff, and the Commission on Audit over the money.