Philippine President Benigno Aquino shakes hands with Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles after his speech on national television at the Malacanang Palace in Manila, Sunday. — Reuters MANILA/KUALA LUMPUR – The Philippine government and Muslim rebels agreed a deal to end a 40-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, President Benigno Aquino said Sunday, 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 Aquino's term in 2016, giving the Muslim-dominated area greater political powers and more control over resources. 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 and which Aquino said honored “the struggles of our forebears in Mindanao.” “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,” Aquino said via a live broadcast from the presidential palace. Rebel vice chairman Ghadzali Jaafar said the agreement provides a huge relief to people who have long suffered from war and are “now hoping the day would come when there will be no need to bear arms.” The deal marks the most significant progress in 15 years of on-and-off negotiations with the 11,000-strong Moro group on ending an uprising that has left more than 120,000 people dead, displaced about 2 million others and held back development in the south. “The parties agree that the status quo is unacceptable,” the 13-page agreement says. It calls for the creation of a new Muslim autonomous region called “Bangsamoro” to replace an existing one created in 1989 which Aquino characterized as a “failed experiment,” where poverty and corruption have forced many “to articulate their grievances through the barrel of a gun.” The accord also calls for the establishment of a 15-member “Transition Commission” to work out the details of the preliminary agreement and draft a law creating the new Muslim autonomous region in about two years. Rebel forces would be deactivated gradually “beyond use,” the agreement says, without specifying a timetable. The Philippine government would continue to exercise exclusive powers over defense and security, foreign and monetary policy in the new autonomous region, where Muslims would be assured of an “equitable share of taxation, revenues, and the fruits of national patrimony ... and equal protection of laws and access to impartial justice,” according to Aquino. The United States, Britain, Malaysia and other countries welcomed the accord. “This agreement is a testament to the commitment of all sides for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in the southern Philippines,” US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement. “The next steps will be to ensure that the framework agreement is fully implemented.” The new Muslim region would be built upon an existing five-province autonomous territory, among the country's poorest and most violent, with more than 4 million people. The Moro rebels earlier dropped a demand for a separate Muslim state and renounced terrorism. Their negotiator, Mohagher Iqbal, earlier said his group would not lay down its weapons until a final peace accord is concluded. He said the insurgents could form a political party and run in democratic elections to get a chance at leading the autonomous region for which they have been fighting. – Agencies
