Philippines deal with rebels ends conflict that has cost 120,000 lives

The Philippine government and Muslim rebels have agreed a deal to end a 40-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, president Benigno Aquino said, paving the way for a political and economic revival of the country’s troubled south.

The agreement begins a roadmap to create a new autonomous region in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country before the end of Mr Aquino’s term in 2016, giving the Muslim-dominated area greater political powers and more control over resources.

Expectations are high that after nearly 15 years of violence-interrupted talks, both the government and the country’s largest Muslim rebel group will keep their pledges in the agreement, to be signed on 15 October in Manila and witnessed by Mr Aquino and Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.

“This framework agreement is about rising above our prejudices. It is about casting aside the distrust and myopia that has the plagued efforts of the past,” Mr Aquino said in a live broadcast yesterday.

The new entity, whose exact size will decided by plebiscites ahead of elections in 2016, will be called Bangsamoro – the term for those who are native to the region. The south’s volatile and often violent politics could still hamper the plans. There is a risk that radical Islamic factions could split off from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and carry on fighting in a region that has a history of links with al-Qaeda militants.

Shortly after the announcement, a breakaway group said it would continue to fight for an independent Islamic state.

“We do not care if the government and the MILF reached an agreement. We do not want the Bangsamoro entity or whatever they may call it,” said Abu Misry Mama, spokesman of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, in the southern city of Davao.

The MILF and the government still need to thrash out details of their broad agreement in the months ahead as a 15-member commission drafts a law by 2015 to send to Congress.

The two sides agreed only that there would be “just and equitable” sharing of resources, which are believed to include large reserves of natural gas. Determining how much power the area will have over law, such as its scope to administer sharia justice, is another remaining challenge for negotiators.

“It’s been a long journey and this is an important milestone in our search for lasting peace,” presidential peace talks adviser Teresita Deles said. The US, Britain, Malaysia and other countries welcomed the accord.

Hopes of peace have been raised in the past only to be dashed, most recently in 2008 when the Supreme Court declared a deal unconstitutional and set off rebel attacks and a fierce military offensive that displaced 750,000 people.

The prospects seem brighter now, analysts say, because Mr Aquino commands strong political capital and has committed to a final settlement by the end of his term. After four decades of conflict, the MILF leaders are ageing and, analysts say, eager to see some fruit from the years of peace negotiations.