MILF’s Commander Bravo accepts BARMM poll defeat

ILIGAN CITY – Member of Parliament Abdullah Macapaar, better known as “Commander Bravo” of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), has accepted defeat in the Sept. 14 historic Bangsamoro parliamentary elections.

Macapaar was the No. 22 nominee of the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the political party of the MILF, which mustered 15 of the 40 seats allotted for the party system.

He is a member of the interim Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA), or the interim Bangsamoro Parliament, since March 29, 2019.

The BTA governs the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) during the transition period, which will end once the newly elected officials assume office next month.

In a video posted on Thursday, three days after the elections, Macapaar said that he was happy that the UBJP gained party, district, and sectoral winners in the first parliamentary elections.

Ahod “al Haj Murad” Ebrahim, the MILF chair, is the No. 1 UBJP nominee.

 “Please do not worry about me. I have great trust that Chairman Murad Ebrahim and other UBJP nominees and candidates elected for seats at the incoming regular government will not forsake us. I know their hearts, and they will continue the fight for our people,” Bravo said in a statement in mixed Filipino and English./coa