Mindanao/Philippines: Philippine Bill Would Give Muslims Autonomy

Sep 10, 2014 | Floyd Whaley, The New York Times
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MANILA — President Benigno S. Aquino III on Wednesday submitted a draft law to the Philippine Congress that would create a self-governed, predominantly Muslim autonomous region in the country’s south, a major step in peace talks meant to end more than four decades of fighting with Muslim rebels.“This law is for the children who wish to run across school grounds instead of running for their lives,” Mujiv S. Hataman, a politician in the southern Philippines, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This law is for families who want to put life into the earth through crops and produce, no longer to dig graves for their fathers and sons who have fallen in war. This law is what will help them realize their wishes and dreams.”