Philippines, Muslim rebels sign peace deal

The Philippines and the country's largest
Muslim rebel group have signed a
historic peace agreement, after 17 years
of negotiations and decades of fighting
that killed at least 120,000 in the
southern island of Mindanao.
The deal between the government of
President Benigno Aquino and the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was
signed on Thursday at the presidential
palace in the capital Manila.
"The comprehensive agreement on
Bangsamoro is the crowning glory of our
struggle," MILF chairman Al Haj Murad
Ebrahim said at the signing ceremony,
using the local term that refers to a
Muslim homeland.
The agreement will create the
Bangsamoro autonomous government
with its own budget and police powers.
A transition body will be put in place
with local elections scheduled in 2016.
"We are hoping that with the singular
goal to achieve peace and development
in the region, we will be able to breach
all these differences and unite
everybody towards the common cause,"
Miriam Ferrer, the chief government
negotiator, told Al Jazeera.
Aquino and Ebrahim witnessed the
signing, alongside Malaysian Prime
Minister Najib Razak. Malaysia served as
the main mediator of the talks.
More than 500 MILF rebels were also
invited to the ceremony, as well as
Philippine officials and diplomats.
The MILF has been fighting for self-
determination in the southern region of
Mindanao, which they regard as their
ancestral homeland. With the
agreement, the group renounces the
armed struggle for independence.
Disarming fighters
As part of the deal, the MILF also
promised to turn in the weapons of the
10,000 to 15,000 rebel fighters,
considered as the biggest armed group
in Southeast Asia.
The new Bangsamoro government will
also receive 75 percent of taxes
collected in the region, 75 percent of
revenues from metallic minerals and
some control of fishing territories.
The original rebel group Moro National
Liberation Front, which signed a
separate agreement in 1996, and the
Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters,
which is fighting for an independent
state, are excluded from the deal.
Abhoud Syed M Lingga, a senior MILF
member and one of the signatories of
the deal, told Al Jazeera that while there
are some small groups who are "not
happy" with the deal, most of the
residents are.
"The people in the Bangsamoro
homeland are quite happy that there
will be a conclusion to this conflict," he
said.
"We do not expect everybody to join
now, because they are not even sure if
the agreement will be implemented,"
Lingga added. But he said that once the
agreement is implemented, and people
will see the "dividends of peace" he is
optimistic that the splinter groups will
"embrace the path of peace".
Von al-Haq, a senior MILF field
commander and spokesman of the
group, has been fighting the
government since 1972.
He told Al Jazeera that the younger
fighters on the ground, who have only
seen war in their lifetime, are eager to
go back to their families and lead
normal lives.
"The armed group of the MILF is very
supportive to this peace process," he
said.