Filed
First Reading
Second Reading — Committee
Second Reading — Plenary
Third Reading
Approved
EnactedNow
Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 20
In forceAn Act Mandating the Dual Use of Hijri and Gregorian Calendars in All Ministries, Agencies, Local Government Units, Offices and Institutions in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Appropriating Funds Therefor and Other Purposes
Memoranda, office orders and formal correspondence now carry two dates instead of one, Hijri first. A religious body, the Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta', is given ₱10 million and the job of sighting the moon on the 29th of each Hijri month so the date is accurate.
Filed
First Reading
Second Reading — Committee
Second Reading — Plenary
Third Reading
Approved
EnactedNow
Signed into law and operative unless later amended or repealed.
What this measure does
This puts two dates on every official document in the region, and it says which one goes first.
Memoranda, office orders and formal correspondence must carry both the Hijri and the Gregorian year, month and date — and the Hijri date leads. The reach is wider than most acts of this kind: every BARMM ministry, bureau, board, commission and corporation; every local government unit down to the barangay; and every school, private as well as public, across basic, higher and technical education.
Because a Hijri month begins when a new moon is actually sighted, someone has to look. The act gives that job to the Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta', which performs moon-sighting on the 29th day of each Hijri month and exchanges observations with nearby Southeast Asian Muslim countries. It gets ₱10 million to start, and a wider remit alongside — issuing fatwa, advising the Chief Minister on religious affairs, and leading intrareligious and interreligious dialogue.
Why it was proposed
The stated policy is cultural self-governance under the Organic Law: recognizing the primacy of the predominant way of life in the region, while — the same sentence is careful about this — encouraging all-inclusive understanding, coexistence and harmony at every level of governance. Among its objectives is fulfilling equally the declaration of Islamic holidays already recognized under the national Code on Muslim Personal Laws.
Who it affects
- Every ministry, bureau, office, commission, administration, board, committee, institute and corporation of the BARMM, whether it performs a governmental or a proprietary function.
- Every provincial, city, municipal and barangay local government unit in the region.
- Every school in the region — private ones expressly included — across basic, higher and technical education.
- Anyone who files, receives or reads official correspondence in the region.
Who would implement it
- Office of the Chief Minister, which implements the law
- Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta', through which the OCM acts, and which performs the monthly moon-sighting
Funding
Carries an appropriation. ₱10,000,000 initial funding for the Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta', drawn from any available funds of the Bangsamoro Government, with subsequent years carried in the agency's regular budget subject to the usual accounting and audit rules.
What changes if it becomes law
- Official documents carry two calendars instead of one, with the Hijri date first.
- The duty reaches private schools — unusual for a Bangsamoro act, most of which bind government only.
- The Hijri date becomes an administrative fact with an office responsible for determining it, rather than a matter of local practice.
- The Darul-Ifta' is funded and given a defined role in regional governance, not only in religious affairs.
Raised during deliberations
No published record of the debate on this measure. Parliament’s journals cover sittings up to March 2023 only, and no committee report on it has been published.
What to notice
The ordering is the substance. Requiring both calendars is a gesture toward plurality; requiring the Hijri first is a statement about whose reckoning of time is primary in the region. The act says as much in its policy section — the primacy of the predominant way of life — and then, in the same sentence, reaches the other way toward coexistence and inclusiveness. Both claims are in the law, and the sequence of the dates is where the first one is actually enforced.
The reach into private schools is the sleeper provision. Most Bangsamoro legislation binds government to itself. Section 4 names private basic, higher and technical education alongside public, which makes this one of the few regional acts that lands directly on institutions the government does not run.
And there is no penalty anywhere in it. A mandate on thousands of offices and schools, with no sanction for ignoring it and no prescribed format for complying — which makes uptake a matter of administrative habit rather than legal risk. The most concrete thing the act actually funds is the moon-sighting: ₱10 million, and someone looking at the sky on the 29th of every month so the date on the paperwork is right.