The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group, which has begun exercising self-rule on the island of Mindanao, is not yet ready to surrender its remaining weapons ahead of the autonomous region’s first election next year, a key part of the peace process with the government, one of its leaders said Tuesday.
Mohagher Iqbal of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, who led the group’s negotiations with the Philippine government, told Kyodo News that they cannot proceed with decommissioning their 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 said.
Under the peace agreement, which Japan helped broker, the Philippine government is required to provide socio-economic aid, including housing and cash, in exchange for the rebels’ surrender of firearms. Iqbal lamented that “very little has been delivered” by the government, which has cited a lack of funding as the cause of the delay.
Despite still being partly armed, Iqbal said, “We will not use the weapons to terrorize voters” during the Bangsamoro autonomous region’s first parliamentary elections, scheduled for May next year, in which the rebel group will participate. He emphasized that their leadership maintains control over their forces in southwestern Mindanao.
“The concern is the private armies of the politicians,” Iqbal said, noting that the MILF’s party faces a tough battle in the upcoming polls. He added that the abolition of these private armies, in a region where feuds between local clans remain rampant, is one of the government’s unfulfilled promises.
The MILF, which began its armed struggle for autonomy in the 1970s, currently dominates the interim government of the Bangsamoro region under the terms of the peace pact.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in July that 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.
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).”
