The thing is, they’re not done yet, the rest of the Philippines remains unconquered.
They (MILF terrorists) will invent a grievance in the future to push for full statehood, being an autonomous Islamic region within a Christian state is an anathema for the Muslims, the knife will soon be unsheathed for more blood letting, mark my words, this is how they conquered huge swaths of land throughout the Levant, Maghreb as well as in Asia.
Philippines, MILF seal historic peace deal
MANILA — The biggest Muslim group in the Philippines signed a historic pact yesterday to end one of Asia’s longest and deadliest conflicts, promising to give up their arms for an autonomous homeland.
Following four decades of fighting that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the peace deal with 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 form 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. The planned region has a majority of Muslims, but there are clusters of other communities.
MILF have been struggling 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 warlords as well as outbreaks of fighting that has led to mass displacements.
The conflict also formed fertile conditions for extremism, with the 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 group in Mindanao, and the political settlement was greeted with relief and optimism in the south.
“I am really happy. In the face of all the hardship of our parents, we the next generation hope and pray that Christians and Muslims will have peace,” Mona Rakman, 42, a mother of four who lives close to the MILF headquarters, said.
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. 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.
This will be a ‘fifth column’ and a base for Islamofascists .