Disarmament proved to be the trickiest part of the peace agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government, which led to the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

It is also an integral part of the confidence building between the government and the secessionist group but which is a commitment that Mohaqer Iqbal, former head of the MILF negotiating panel and now BARMM Minister of the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education, said his group is not ready to fulfill.

In an interview with Japan’s Kyodo News, Iqbal conceded that members of the MILF are not letting go of their weapons to complete the self-rule pact it struck with the government.

BARMM will hold its first election along with the rest of the country in May next year, cementing the autonomous region’s representation through the ballot.

Aside from the MILF having a coercive advantage through its firearms, the situation during the campaign period would be tenuous with the presence of guns all over.

Iqbal said the MILF cannot proceed with the decommissioning of the remaining 14,000 fighters “until all conditions of the 2014 peace accord are fulfilled.” Over 26,000 others have already completed the decommissioning process, he claimed.

Iqbal’s assertion is unbelievable unless all arms are turned over to the government.

Under the peace agreement, which Japan helped broker, Iqbal said the government has yet to meet the required socio-economic aid, including housing and cash, in exchange for the rebels’ surrender of firearms.

Iqbal, who is already benefiting from the arrangement that he now criticizes, lamented that “very little has been delivered” by the government due to lack of funding.

Iqbal said “we will not use the weapons to terrorize voters” during the Bangsamoro autonomous region’s first parliamentary elections but he failed to say how he can be sure about this vow since the MILF has its bets for the BARMM polls.

Iqbal then issued the alibi that the decision of the MILF to keep armed was to address the concern about “private armies of the politicians” or those who would dare challenge the MILF candidates.

The abolition of private armies, in a region where feuds between local clans remain rampant, is one of the government’s unfulfilled promises, he claimed, which sounded ridiculous since the MILF is allowed to maintain the biggest private army in the country.

The rebel’s own group whose members are armed to the teeth is separate from the BARMM police force that the government recognizes.

Last July, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the implementation of the peace agreement is in the “concluding phase” and that the region is “primed and ready” to hold an election after it was first postponed in 2022.

Marcos was a key proponent of the Basic Law of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region that is the BARMM Charter.

Iqbal said the MILF will respect the outcome of the election but is hopeful “we’ll still be holding the reins of (the autonomous government).”

The MILF, thus, will have an unfair advantage over other groups seeking to represent BARMM.

The government should persuade the MILF to lay down its arms since the substantial portions of the self-determination deal have been complied with.

Iqbal and the other MILF leaders are holding key positions in the BARMM that give them an undue advantage going into the region’s first poll even without the brandishing of weapons. If not, the Philippine National Police should confiscate the MILF firearms since, plainly, the law does not allow it.