REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUALA LUMPUR - The Philippine government and the country's largest Muslim group completed talks Saturday on a deal to end four decades of fighting that has killed tens of thousands of people and helped foster Islamic extremism in Southeast Asia.
"This will give the just and lasting peace that our brothers in Mindanao are seeking." said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda, referring to the volatile southern region and homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.
Saturday's accord has been the most significant progress made over 13 years of negotiations to tame a tenacious insurgency that has left more than 120,000 people dead and derailed development in Muslim-populated southern regions that are among the most destitute in the Philippines.
Chief government negotiator Miriam Ferrer said that concluding the talks "marks the beginning of the bigger challenge ahead, which is the ... implementation."
The accord between Filipino negotiators and the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front calls for Muslim self-rule in parts of the southern Philippines in exchange for the deactivation of the rebel force. Military presence in the proposed autonomous region would be restricted.
Much now will depend on how the accord is enforced, in particular whether the 11,000-strong forces are able to maintain security in areas that would come under their control. At least four other smaller Muslim groups are still fighting Manila's rule in the southern Mindanao region, and could act as spoilers.
Under the peace deal, the Moro insurgents agreed to end violence in exchange for broader autonomy. An existing five-province Muslim autonomous region is to be replaced by a more powerful, better-funded and potentially larger region to be called Bangsamoro.
Despite the milestone, both the government and the rebels acknowledged that violence would not end overnight in a region that has long grappled with a volatile mix of crushing poverty, huge numbers of illegal firearms, clan wars and weak law enforcement. One rebel group vowed to keep fighting.
"We will continue the struggle," said Abu Misri, spokesman of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, which broke off from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front three years ago.
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