Philippine leader approves autonomy law for Muslim region
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has approved a law permitting the autonomy-seeking Muslim community in the south of the country to start a legal procedure to gain autonomy.
Duterte signed the Bangsamoro Organic Law on Thursday after a visit to a southern city, according to his spokesman Harry Roque.
The long-awaited law was approved by the government after decades of peace talks between autonomy seekers and the government were stalled causing frustration, and most notably resulting in the devastating occupation of Marawi City last year by a Daesh-linked splinter militant group.
Ebrahim Murad, chairman of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said he was confident the law would help bring splinter separatist groups back into the political fold and eliminate prospects of any incidents like Marawi.
The Bangsamoro Organic Law, which has broad public backing, makes it difficult for foreign extremists to form alliances and win support, Murad told reporters.
"All these splinter groups are a result of the frustration with the peace process. The moment the small groups no longer accept the foreign elements, they can no longer come (to the Philippines)."
The Bangsamoro area includes part of the Philippines' second-largest island of Mindanao, and a chain of dozens of small islands to the west notorious for piracy and banditry.
An estimated five million Muslims live in the region, which has the predominantly Catholic nation's lowest levels of employment, income, education and economic development.
The momentum behind the autonomy process was "a long-awaited dream coming true," said Jesus Dureza, Duterte's top peace adviser.
The new law gives the new entity, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, political and economic powers that successive governments have promised separatists, in order to halt the conflict that has killed about 120,000 people and displaced 2 million.
Mindanao remains under martial law until the end of this year, to allow security forces to halt a regrouping by a pro-Daesh alliance that held Marawi through five months of air and ground assaults.
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