With the way the Sulu and Isabela constituents thumbed down their inclusion in the formation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BAR) through their rejection of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), chances don’t look too good for the desired peace in Mindanao, despite the seeming approval of the majority of Muslim voters, especially as the soon-to-be eliminated Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), were in essence forced to vote as a sort of regional bloc for inclusion in the BAR.

The way it looks, the way the plebiscite was framed, even if the questions were answerable by “Yes” or “No,” it is pretty suspicious that even after rejecting to be part of the BAR, some areas, such as Sulu which is the bailiwick of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) despite having voted a resounding “No,” will still be part of the BAR, as it is a supposed part of the ARMM that voted as a whole in the 21 January plebiscite.

The question is why the old ARMM partners were considered as a bloc vote when the issue really is whether Muslim areas want to join the BAR which is a new Muslim region.

What this amounts to is a clear disrespect of the vote of Sulu residents, as no matter how they voted, their “No” votes were meaningless, since their resounding vote didn’t count.

Then, too, a second plebiscite vote goes into some nebulous way of getting provinces and cities that voted “No” — with their residents voting whether they want their barangays or areas part of provinces and municipalities that already voted “No” — to have their votes rescinded in order to have their barangays included.

This practice translates to again disrespecting the vote of the entire province or city by getting village residents to vote “Yes” for inclusion.

There is also a big problem that is slated to crop up stemming from the problem of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), whose leaders have made clear that that the group will not decommission its arms and will withdraw them only when all the agreements stated in the BOL have been implemented.

Despite this statement from MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal, he admitted in an interview on the TV news program “News to Go” that the arrangement on the decommissioning of firearms of rebels is still vague, without definite guidelines and methods.

Igbal was quoted as saying: “If you look at what is written in the agreement between the government and the MILF, there is no comprehensive and final agreement on how to go about decommissioning and how to handle the arms of the MILF.”

The agreement on the decommissioning of MILF arms was deliberately left vague by the MILF since its leaders were part, if not the chief part, of the peace panel that worked on the arrangement.

It was also said the agreement between MILF and the government includes normalization of the rebels, which means they have to decommission their weapons and become part of a productive community.

Apparently, this is far from happening as Iqbal stressed that only if the security situation in Mindanao is stable and the people are protected will the Moro leaders and their armed group be willing to give up their firearms. This can be a forever thing.

This BAR is supposed to usher in peace in Mindanao, yet the MILF leaders who will presumably form the government with its control over parliament and with the chief executive who will always come from the MILF, having full control of so-called government, the MILF government will continue to have its private army despite the presence of the military and police.

Now why should the MILF that will be the governing body supposedly merely an autonomous region and an integral part of the national government continue to have its private army?

The central government led by President Duterte does not have a private army as the Constitution is clear in its proviso that there can be no other armed force other than all the constitutional Armed Forces of the Philippines, which means the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Not so, in the case of the MILF and its BAR government, since the MILF is not going to give up its arms, despite the fact that there can be no other armed force other than the AFP and the PNP.

One wonders why despite the MILF getting all it wants by way of government power and probably more still refuses to toe the constitutional line and refuses to give up its arms.

Is the MILF ready to go into its killing spree and go after the MNLF and BIFF and perhaps, in time, go after the central government while proclaiming independence for Mindanao?

In the meantime, don’t anybody count on peace in Mindanao — not when the MILF insists on keeping its arms and perhaps even get more sophisticated firearms, once in government power and position.