Filed
First Reading
Second Reading — Committee
Second Reading — Plenary
Third Reading
Approved
EnactedNow
Bangsamoro Autonomy Act No. 55
In forceAn Act Creating the Municipality of Sheik Abas Hamza in the Province of Maguindanao Del Norte, Providing Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes
If ratified, 10 barangays covering about 164.4 square kilometres become a distinct and independent municipality with its own appointed mayor, vice-mayor and eight-member council, seated at Barangay Bugawas.
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Signed into law and operative unless later amended or repealed.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
Ten barangays — Labungan, Taviran, Baka, Sapalan, Sifaran, Bugawas, Bitu, Kurintem, Margues and Makir — leave the Municipality of Datu Odin Sinsuat and become a municipality of their own, named for Sheik Abas Hamza and seated at Barangay Bugawas.
The act is more precise about the ground than its siblings: it states a land area of 164,387,474 square meters, about 164 square kilometers, with the boundary following the existing barangay lines.
As with the other creations, none of it happens without a vote. A majority of the votes cast by qualified voters in those ten barangays, within 60 days of approval, run and supervised by COMELEC and paid for from the region's Contingent Fund. If it passes, the Chief Minister appoints the first mayor, vice-mayor and eight councillors, and the Bangsamoro Government pays not less than ₱2.5 million a month to run the place until its share of national taxes arrives.
Why it was proposed
The same Organic Law power to redraw the region's local government map, exercised on the same day as the Nuling and Datu Sinsuat Balabaran creations — three new municipalities carved out of Maguindanao del Norte in a single sitting.
Who it affects
- Residents of the ten named barangays, who vote on the change and live with the result.
- Residents of what remains of Datu Odin Sinsuat, which loses ten barangays.
- Incumbent councillors of Datu Odin Sinsuat living in the new municipality, who finish their terms in the mother municipality.
- Bangsamoro taxpayers, funding ₱2.5 million a month until the revenue allotment arrives.
Who would implement it
- Commission on Elections, which conducts and supervises the plebiscite
- Office of the Chief Minister, which appoints the first municipal officials
- Bangsamoro Government, which appropriates the monthly financial assistance
Funding
Carries an appropriation. Not less than ₱2,500,000 every month until the municipality is allocated its Internal Revenue Allotment share — at that floor, at least ₱30 million a year. The plebiscite is charged to the BARMM Contingent Fund under the fiscal year 2024 appropriations.
What changes if it becomes law
- Ten barangays leave Datu Odin Sinsuat and form a distinct and independent municipality, if the plebiscite passes.
- A new local government is seated at Bugawas.
- The municipality becomes entitled to its own share of national taxes.
- A monthly subsidy floor of ₱2.5 million bridges the gap until that share arrives.
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
Three municipalities were created out of Maguindanao del Norte on 1 day, each on the same template and each carrying the same ₱2.5 million monthly floor. That is at least ₱90 million a year in bridging subsidy committed in a single sitting, before any of the three has a tax base — and the acts are silent on how long that bridge is expected to be, because the Internal Revenue Allotment share depends on a national allocation cycle none of them controls.
This one is the most carefully surveyed of the three: it is the only one to state a land area. Section 4 gives it to the square meter — 164,387,474 — which is a precision worth noting in a region where boundary disputes are not academic. What none of the three states is population, which is the figure that would tell a reader whether ₱2.5 million a month is generous or inadequate.
And this act did not stay as passed. Section 5, the plebiscite requirement, was subsequently amended by BAA 71 — so anyone relying on the ratification timetable in this text should read that amendment alongside it.