Philippine officials have signed a power-sharing accord with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group and expect to sign a final peace pact with the insurgents next month to end a decadeslong rebellion in the volatile south.
The accord, which outlines the powers of a Muslim autonomous government in a region to be called Bangsamoro, was signed Sunday by negotiators for the government and the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Malaysia, which has been brokering the talks, officials said Monday.
The accord is the third of four proposed pacts that are to constitute a final peace agreement between the government and the Moro guerrillas. The insurgents have been fighting for self-rule for minority Muslims in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation in an insurgency that has left thousands of combatants and civilians dead and held back progress in some of the country’s poorest regions.