Southern Autonomous Region only a preliminary step

Peace is not imminent in the predominantly Muslim areas of the southern Philippines, but government efforts to stabilize the archipelagic region took a major step forward last week. On September 10, Philippine Pre-sident Benigno Aquino 3rd submitted a draft law to Congress creating a new autonomous government in the southern region, to be known as Bang-samoro. The submission ended a tense three-month period of deliberations with rebel nego-tiators over the law’s finer details and is the product of nearly two decades of violence-marred negotiations between the go-vernment and Moro rebels. The draft aims to address some of the underlying drivers of the violence by giving the region a greater share of resource and tax revenues   and a largely independent parliament, police force and civil judiciary.

However, even if fully imple-mented, the law would not completely pacify the restive region, which is home to numerous militant groups, clan-based feuds, and entrenched criminal networks that will continue to deter the development of the region’s vast economic potential.