Philippines, Muslim rebels agree landmark peace deal

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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 on 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.

Expectations are high that after nearly 15 years of violence-interrupted talks, both the government and the country’s largest Muslim rebel group will keep their pledges in the agreement, to be signed on Oct 15 in Manila and witnessed by Aquino and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

"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 in a live broadcast from the presidential palace.

The new entity, whose exact size will be 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".

The south's volatile and often violent politics could still hamper the plans. There is a risk that radical Islamic factions could split off from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and carry on fighting in a region that has a history of links with al-Qaida militants.

Shortly after the announcement of the agreement, a breakaway group said it would continue to fight for an independent Islamic state.

"We do not care if the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front reached an agreement. We do not want the Bangsamoro entity or whatever they may call it," said Abu Misry Mama, spokesman of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, in the southern city of Davao.

The group launched attacks on army positions in the south in August as government and rebel negotiators held talks in Kuala Lumpur, but were repulsed by government troops.

The 12-page agreement sees the Bangsamoro region having its vested property rights protected, the basic rights of its minorities and indigenous groups recognized and witnessing the gradual transfer of law enforcement functions in the area from the Armed Forces of the Philippines to a reformed police.

The autonomous region would replace the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao set up two decades ago, which Aquino has called a "failed experiment".

Questions:

1. How long has the conflict been going on for?

2. What does the agreement give the Muslim-dominated area in the south?

3. By which year will the exact size of the entity have been decided?

Answers:

1. 40 years.

2. Greater political powers and more control over resources.

3. 2016.

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.