MANILA: Philippine Presi­­­dent Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday approved a long-awaited law to allow minority Muslims in the south to start moving towards self-rule by 2022, a bid to tackle extremism and defuse a half-century of separatist conflict.

The green light is the culmination of a lengthy and rocky peace accord with separatists, during which militants linked to IS have expanded their influence, most notably in their devastating occupation of Marawi City last year.

Duterte signed the measure into law after a visit to a southern city, his spokesman, Harry Roque, told reporters.

Ebrahim Murad, chairman of the separatist Moro Isla­mic Liberation Front (MILF), said he was confident the law would help bring splinter separatist groups back into the political fold and eliminate prospects of any incidents like Marawi.

The Bangsamoro Organic Law, as the measure is known, has broad public backing, making it harder for foreign extremists to form alliances and win support, he told reporters.

“All these splinter groups are a result of the frustration with the peace process. The moment the small groups no longer accept the foreign elements, they can no longer come [to the Philippines].” The Bangsa­moro area includes part of the Philippines’ second-larg­­est island of Mindanao, and a chain of dozens of small islands to the west notorious for piracy and banditry.

An estimated five million Muslims live in the region, which has the predominantly Catholic nation’s lowest levels of employment, income, education and economic development.

The momentum behind the autonomy process was “a long-awaited dream coming true”, said Jesus Dureza, Duterte’s top peace adviser.

The new law gives the new entity, Bangsamoro Autono­mous Region in Muslim Mindanao, political and economic powers that successive governments have promised separatists, in order to halt conflict that has killed about 120,000 people, displaced 2 million, and helped radical Islam gain a foothold in the region.

Mindanao remains under martial law until the end of this year, to allow security forces to halt a regrouping by a pro-IS alliance that held Marawi through five months of air and ground assaults, in a battle reminiscent of Raqqa or Mosul in the Middle East.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2018