Filed
First Reading
Second Reading — Committee
Second Reading — Plenary
Third Reading
Approved
EnactedNow
Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 48
In forceCabinet measureAn Act Creating the Municipality of Ligawasan (SGA)
Creates the Municipality of Ligawasan (SGA).
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Signed into law and operative unless later amended or repealed.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 act creates a new municipality, Ligawasan, out of seven barangays that used to belong to Pikit in North Cotabato — Bagoinged, Barungis, Bulol, Buliok, Gli-Gli, Kabasalan, and Rajamuda. All seven voted in the 2019 plebiscite to join the Bangsamoro, and they sit in what the region calls its Special Geographic Areas. The act separates them from Pikit and constitutes them as a municipality in their own right, with its seat of government at Barangay Bagoinged and its boundary following the existing lines of the seven barangays.
Becoming a municipality is not automatic. The act requires a plebiscite in those barangays within 60 days of approval, run by the Commission on Elections through the Bangsamoro Electoral Office, and Ligawasan acquires corporate existence only if a majority of the votes cast approve. Until an election is held, the first mayor, vice-mayor, and council are appointed rather than elected.
A new municipality has no share of national tax revenue until it is entered into the allocation, so the act commits the Bangsamoro Government to pay monthly financial assistance for the new local government's administration and operation until that share arrives, subject to ordinary accounting and audit rules.
Why it was proposed
The seven barangays voted in 2019 to leave North Cotabato for the Bangsamoro, which left them inside the region but still attached to a municipality outside it. The Bangsamoro Government has the power under the Organic Law to create municipalities, and this act uses it to give those barangays a local government of their own.
Who it affects
- Residents of the seven barangays — about 29,800 people across roughly 112 square kilometers, by the figures annexed to the bill.
- The Municipality of Pikit, North Cotabato, which loses the seven barangays and the revenue attached to them.
- Elected officials of Pikit who live in the separated barangays: the bill addressed how their existing terms are handled.
- The Bangsamoro Government, which carries the new municipality's operating cost until national tax allotment begins.
Who would implement it
- Commission on Elections, through the Bangsamoro Electoral Office, which conducts and supervises the plebiscite
- The Bangsamoro Government, which appropriates the monthly financial assistance
- The appointed first set of municipal officials, who run Ligawasan until an election is held
Funding
Carries an appropriation. The bill as filed named a figure: not less than ₱2,500,000 every month until the municipality received its share of national tax revenue. The enacted act keeps the monthly commitment but drops the amount, promising financial assistance "every month" subject to usual accounting and auditing rules. Plebiscite costs come out of existing COMELEC funds.
What changes if it becomes law
- Seven barangays stop being part of Pikit and become a municipality, if the plebiscite approves.
- Ligawasan gains its own local government, seated at Bagoinged, initially by appointment rather than election.
- The Bangsamoro Government takes on a recurring monthly cost until national tax allotment reaches the new municipality.
- North Cotabato's Pikit is reduced by seven barangays, about 112 square kilometers.
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 interesting difference is between the bill and the law. The filed copy guaranteed at least ₱2.5 million a month; the enacted text promises monthly assistance without saying how much. That converts a floor into a budget decision, and it is the kind of change that is invisible unless you read both documents. Worth tracking alongside it: the plebiscite had to happen within 60 days of approval, and a new municipality's finances stay dependent on the regional government until the national tax allotment catches up — which is a slower process than 60 days.
How to take part
PDF on the Bangsamoro Autonomy Acts index at parliament.bangsamoro.gov.ph and the Official Gazette of the Bangsamoro.