World Bank lauds Philippine peace deal
The World Bank joined the global community in congratulating the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for their signing of a peace agreement on March 27 that bring to an end one of Asia’s longest and deadliest conflicts.
Following four decades of fighting that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the peace deal with Philippine President Benigno Aquino’s government at a high-profile ceremony in Manila.
“The comprehensive agreement on Bangsamoro is the crowning glory of our struggle,” MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim said at the signing ceremony, using a local term that refers to a Muslim homeland.
“With this agreement the legitimate aspirations of the Bangsamoro and the commitment of the government of the Philippines to recognise those aspirations are now sealed.”
The pact makes the MILF and the government partners in a plan to create a southern autonomous region for the Philippines’ Muslim minority with locally elected leaders by mid-2016.
“What is being presented before us now is a path that can lead to a permanent change in Muslim Mindanao,” Aquino said at the ceremony, attended by more than 1,000 people.
The Bangsamoro region would cover about 10 per cent of territory in the mainly Catholic Philippines. The planned region has a majority of Muslims, but there are clusters of Catholic-dominated communities.
Muslim rebels have been battling since the 1970s for independence or autonomy in the southern islands of the Philippines, which they regard as their ancestral homeland dating back to when Arabic traders arrived there in the 13th Century. The conflict has condemned millions of people across large parts of the resource-rich Mindanao region to brutal poverty, plagued by Muslim and Christian warlords as well as outbreaks of fighting that has led to mass displacements.
The conflict also created fertile conditions for Islamic extremism, with the Al Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group and other hardline militants making remote regions of Mindanao their strongholds. The MILF, which the military estimates has 10,000 fighters, is easily the biggest Muslim rebel group in Mindanao, and the political settlement was greeted with relief and optimism in the south.
The autonomous region would have its own police force, a regional parliament and power to levy taxes, while revenues from the region’s vast deposits of natural resources would be split with the national government. It would have a secular government, rather than being an Islamic state. The national government would retain control over defence, foreign policy, currency and citizenship.
There are about 10 million Muslims in the Philippines, roughly 10 per cent of the population, according to government statistics. Most live in the south of the country.
The World Bank, along with development partners and other stakeholders, has been supporting peace and inclusive growth in Mindanao through various programmes and projects including social protection, community-driven development, upgrading of community infrastructure, and lately the formulation of the Bangsamoro Development Plan. It said it will continue to scale up efforts to support programmes “that will broker sustainable peace and development in the Bangsamoro and Mindanao as a whole”.
The World Bank joined the global community in congratulating the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for their signing of a peace agreement on March 27 that bring to an end one of Asia's longest and deadliest conflicts. Following four decades of fighting that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the peace deal with Philippine President Benigno Aquino's government at a high-profile ceremony in Manila. "The comprehensive agreement on Bangsamoro is the crowning glory of our struggle," MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim said at the signing ceremony, using a local term...
The World Bank joined the global community in congratulating the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for their signing of a peace agreement on March 27 that bring to an end one of Asia’s longest and deadliest conflicts.
Following four decades of fighting that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the peace deal with Philippine President Benigno Aquino’s government at a high-profile ceremony in Manila.
“The comprehensive agreement on Bangsamoro is the crowning glory of our struggle,” MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim said at the signing ceremony, using a local term that refers to a Muslim homeland.
“With this agreement the legitimate aspirations of the Bangsamoro and the commitment of the government of the Philippines to recognise those aspirations are now sealed.”
The pact makes the MILF and the government partners in a plan to create a southern autonomous region for the Philippines’ Muslim minority with locally elected leaders by mid-2016.
“What is being presented before us now is a path that can lead to a permanent change in Muslim Mindanao,” Aquino said at the ceremony, attended by more than 1,000 people.
The Bangsamoro region would cover about 10 per cent of territory in the mainly Catholic Philippines. The planned region has a majority of Muslims, but there are clusters of Catholic-dominated communities.
Muslim rebels have been battling since the 1970s for independence or autonomy in the southern islands of the Philippines, which they regard as their ancestral homeland dating back to when Arabic traders arrived there in the 13th Century. The conflict has condemned millions of people across large parts of the resource-rich Mindanao region to brutal poverty, plagued by Muslim and Christian warlords as well as outbreaks of fighting that has led to mass displacements.
The conflict also created fertile conditions for Islamic extremism, with the Al Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group and other hardline militants making remote regions of Mindanao their strongholds. The MILF, which the military estimates has 10,000 fighters, is easily the biggest Muslim rebel group in Mindanao, and the political settlement was greeted with relief and optimism in the south.
The autonomous region would have its own police force, a regional parliament and power to levy taxes, while revenues from the region’s vast deposits of natural resources would be split with the national government. It would have a secular government, rather than being an Islamic state. The national government would retain control over defence, foreign policy, currency and citizenship.
There are about 10 million Muslims in the Philippines, roughly 10 per cent of the population, according to government statistics. Most live in the south of the country.
The World Bank, along with development partners and other stakeholders, has been supporting peace and inclusive growth in Mindanao through various programmes and projects including social protection, community-driven development, upgrading of community infrastructure, and lately the formulation of the Bangsamoro Development Plan. It said it will continue to scale up efforts to support programmes “that will broker sustainable peace and development in the Bangsamoro and Mindanao as a whole”.
