in january 2017, nene pimentel proposed in a federalism forum that the bangsamoro state should be divided into two autonomous regions, namely, mainland muslim mindanao and the sulu archipelago, as the two muslim areas are distinct from each other in terms of culture. he made the statement after going around the autonomous region of muslim mindanao, whose people told him that the muslims of the offshore islands (basilan, sulu, tawi-tawi) do not want to be lumped together with the mainland muslims of mindanao as they are distinct from each other. pimentel also noted that shariah law could only be applied in the bangsamoro state (composed of autonomous region of mainland bangsamoro and autonomous region of sulu) if the two parties are muslims, but if one or both parties are non-muslims, national law will always apply.