The Bangsamoro development

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

It was a very happy looking President Benigno Aquino III who announced before the Filipino people yesterday that his government was ready to sign an agreement with the Molo Islamic Liberation Front that will put to an end the long-running rebellion in Mindanao that is believed to have caused the death of about 150,000 people.

The agreement is scheduled to be signed on October 15, and the President had only high praise for the officials he had designated to broker the talks and who drew up with representatives of the MILF the terms and conditions of the document.

With this, the President told his people, a new semi-autonomous Muslim region will be created in some parts of Mindanao, over which the government will retain control over defense and security. The agreement was forged after a long series of talks in Malaysia. It is expected to put an end to the struggle for autonomy by the Muslims in Mindanao who have claimed that the area is their own ancestral homeland which they have occupied even before the Spaniards arrived in the country.

In his speech announcing the completion of the talks and the adoption of the terms for the agreement, the President said this will mean the unity of all Filipinos wherever they are, and their peaceful coexistence as one nation.

All over the country, Filipinos welcomed the news with great hope, while still entertaining some trepidation over how such an agreement would work, considering the efforts of various administration in the past decades to come to terms with the Mindanao groups that, aside from claiming that they were distinct from the rest of the country, have also been perceived to feel that they are regarded as second class citizens, who have been neglected by government and have not been provided with the same privileges as those in other regions.

We all hope that all these will be resolved with the signing of this pact, and that we will all come to think of each other as citizens of this country all with the same rights and privileges afforded by her laws. Such a development can only lead to better understanding, peace, and, hopefully, more progress and development all over, including the areas where our brother Muslim live.*