Juan Manuel Santos: Colombia rebels' archfoe turned peacemaker

Yahoo – AFP, Alina Dieste, October 7, 2016

Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos came to power in 2010 (AFP

Photo/Guillermo Legaria)

Bogota (AFP) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday, is a son of a powerful family who staked his legacy on troubled efforts to make peace with the communist FARC rebels.

The Nobel Committee hailed the two-term president's "resolute" bid to end Latin America's longest conflict -- despite a shock referendum defeat last weekend for the peace accord he has championed.

"I prefer an imperfect accord that saves lives to a perfect war that keeps sowing death and pain," Santos had said as he signed the historic deal last month with his erstwhile mortal enemy, the FARC guerrilla leader Timoleon "Timochenko" Jimenez.

Juan Manuel Santos (AFP Photo/Gustavo IZUS,

Tatiana Magarinos)

Voters rejected the deal to end five decades of conflict by a razor-thin margin in Sunday's referendum -- a move the Nobel committee warned could plunge the country into fresh civil war.

The 65-year-old Santos, a career politician, led a major offensive against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as defense minister from 2006 to 2009.

But after becoming president in 2010, he changed tack and negotiated for a settlement with the guerrillas.

"I was never a hawk or a dove. I've always been a standard-bearer for peace," he told AFP in an interview before the September deal.

'Do the right thing'

Santos defied fierce opposition to the talks from some former allies.

"I am not looking for applause. I just want to do the right thing," he once said.

He won reelection in 2014 in a vote widely seen as a referendum on the talks. But his popularity rating has since plunged.

Santos said receiving the Nobel Prize would be "a great stimulus" for efforts to achieve peace.

"We are very, very close, we just need to push a bit further," he told the Nobel Foundation in a telephone interview.

He accepted the prize "not in my own name, but in the name of all Colombians, especially the millions of victims," he added later in a televised address.

"I will dedicate all my strength to this cause for the rest of my life."

'Political courage'

UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi hailed Santos's "political courage" and voiced hope the impasse could be overcome.

A former hostage of the FARC, Ingrid Betancourt -- a Franco-Colombian former politician who was held in the jungle for six years -- said it was a "just" reward for Santos, but added that the rebels should have shared the Nobel.

Since Santos launched peace negotiations four years ago, his predecessor, ex-president Alvaro Uribe, has become his main critic, arguing that the peace accord offered the rebels impunity for their crimes.

Both Uribe and FARC leader Timochenko congratulated Santos on the award, however.

Santos "made war as a means to achieve peace," Santos's brother-in-law and adviser, Mauricio Rodriguez, told AFP recently.

"He weakened the FARC to make them sit at the negotiating table," he added.

The peace drive "required courage, audacity, perseverance and a lot of strategy -- those are Santos's strengths."

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (left) and FARC leader Timoleon 

Jimenez, aka Timochenko, shake hands after signing a historic peace agreement 

in Cartagena, on September 26, 2016 (AFP Photo/Luis Acosta)

'Extreme center' politician

Santos was born in August 1951 in Bogota into a rich, powerful family entrenched in Colombian politics and the media.

He has described himself as politically in the "extreme center."

He was educated at a top naval academy in the Colombian city of Cartagena and later at the London School of Economics.

Santos began his career as a journalist, winning a Spanish award for his coverage of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua as a young man.

The work he did along with his brother Enrique in Nicaragua "had a profound impact on us both," Santos once said.

In 1991 he switched to politics, and has served in various ministerial posts.

An admirer of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Nelson Mandela, Santos is said to be an early riser and late sleeper. He survived prostate cancer in 2012.

His source of strength, he says, is his family -- "my saints," he has called them, playing on his surname which means saints in Spanish.

He and his wife Maria Clemencia Rodriguez have three children.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos wins Nobel Peace Prize for "resolute" efforts to end over 5 decades of war https://t.co/9f5Lf5eDGU pic.twitter.com/0XB1ve9yDe

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 7, 2016

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THE OLD SOUL 2013 TOOLKIT" – Jan 13, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)  (Text version)

"... The Change in the Way Things Work

Now I'm going to be very cautious with number five, and I'm going to change a paradigm of the way we channel. For 23 years, we have given you information in the soup of potentials that we read around you as the highest probable potential that exists. These things eventually become your reality because they are your free choice, and we know what you're thinking. We know what the potentials are because we know what the biases are, and we see all of humanity as a whole. Potentials are energy, and it gives us the ability to project your future based on how you are working these potentials. We have done this for a long time. Twenty-three years ago, we told you about many things that were potentially going to happen, and now they are your reality.

But now I'm going to depart from that scenario and I'm going to give you a potential on Earth that is not the strongest. I am going to tell you about a Human Being who has a choice. This potential is only about 50 percent. But I'm going to "read a potential" to you that you didn't expect. It's about a paradigm that is starting to shift.

Let's talk about North Korea. There's a young, new leader there. The potential is that he will never, ever hear this channel, so I can talk freely about him. He is facing a dilemma, for he is young and he knows about the differences in the energy in his land. He feels it. The lineage of his departed father lies upon him and all that is around him expects him to be a clone of this lineage. He is expected to continue the things that he has been taught and make North Korea great.

But he's starting to rethink them. Indeed, he wants to be a great leader, and to be heard and seen, and to make his mark on North Korea's history. His father showed him that this was very important. So he ponders a question: What makes a world leader great?

Let's ask that question to someone in an older earth paradigm from not that long ago. He will be an expert and a successful one. So this is a valid exercise, asking someone from the past who knows. We will ask that question to a man who you know and whose name is Napoleon. For us, this was yesterday and some of you were there. 

If you asked Napoleon, "What makes a world leader great?", he will say, "the size of the army, how much area can be efficiently conquered with a given amount of resources and men, how important the leader appears will then be based upon how many citizens call him emperor or king, the taxes he can impose, and how many fear him." Not only was that Napoleon's reality, but he was right for the energy he was part of at the time. So Napoleon went back and forth between world leader, general and prisoner. He accomplished almost everything he set out to do. His expertise was obvious, and you remember his name to this day. He was famous.

What makes a world leader great? What I am showing you is the difference in thinking between then and now. There are some choices that this evolving young Human Being has that could change everything on the planet if he wanted. His father would tell this boy that what makes a world leader great is the potential of his missile power, or how close he can get to having a nuclear weapon, or how he stands up against the power of the West, or how he continues to aggravate and stir drama as a small country - getting noticed and being feared. His father would tell him that this is his lineage and that is what he's been told all his life. His father did it well and surrounded himself with advisors who he then passed on to his son.

Now, there's a 50 percent chance of something happening here, but this is not a strong potential, dear ones. I'm bringing this forward so you can watch it work one way or the other. For if the son continues in his father's footsteps, he is doomed to failure. The energy on the earth will see it as old and he will be seen as a fool. If, however, he figures it out, he could be the most famous man on the planet... which is really what his father wanted.

If Kryon were to advise this man, here's what I would tell him. He could be the greatest known leader the current world has ever known, for what he does now will be something the world will see as a demarcation point from the old ways. Not only that, but what he does now will be in the history books forever, and because of his youth, he has the potential to outlive every other leader on the planet! So he's going to have longer fame than anyone ever has.

I would tell him this: Tell the border guards to go home. Greet the south and begin to unify North and South Korea in a way that no past prophet ever said could happen. Allow the two countries to be separate, but have them as two parts of a larger Korean family with free trade and travel. Start alliances with the West and show them that you mean it. Drop the missile programs because you will never need them!

This will bring abundance to the North Korean people that they never expected! They will have great economic sustenance, schools, hospitals and more respect than ever for their amazing leader. The result would be fame and glory for the son, which the father had never achieved, something that the world would talk about for hundreds of years. It would cause a United Nations to stand and applaud as the son walked into the Grand Assembly. I would ask him, "Wouldn't you like that?"

Doesn't this seem obvious to most of you? He could achieve instant fame and be seen as the one who made the difference and started something amazing. But watch him. He has a choice, but it's not simple. He still has his father's advisors, but one of which he's already dismissed. He may get it, or he may not. There is a 50 percent chance. But I'll tell you that if he doesn't do it, the one after him will. Because it is so obvious. 

We show you this to tell you that this is the evolvement of the Human species. It is the slow realization that putting things together is the answer to all things, instead of separating them or conquering them. Those who start promoting compromise and begin to create these energies that never were here before will be the ones you're going to remember. Dear ones, it's going to happen in leadership and politics and in business. It's a new paradigm...."

Arab leaders agree joint military force

Yahoo – AFP, Haitham El-Tabei, 29 March 2015

(Front from L-R) Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Kuwait Emir Sheikh 

Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Yemeni 

President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and Sudanese President Omar al Bashir 

(middle-C) (AFP Photo/Mohamed Samaaha)

Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) (AFP) - Arab leaders agreed on Sunday to form a joint military force after a summit dominated by a Saudi-led offensive on Shiite rebels in Yemen and the threat from Islamist extremism.

Arab representatives will meet over the next month to study the creation of the force and present their findings to defence ministers within four months, according to the resolution adopted by the leaders.

"Assuming the great responsibility imposed by the great challenges facing our Arab nation and threatening its capabilities, the Arab leaders had decided to agree on the principle of a joint Arab military force," Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told the summit in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The decision was mostly aimed at fighting jihadists who have overrun swathes of Iraq and Syria and secured a foothold in Libya, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said ahead of the summit.

On Sunday, Arabi told the meeting the region was threatened by a "destructive" force that threatened "ethnic and religious diversity", in an apparent reference to the Islamic State group.

"What is important is that today there is an important decision, in light of the tumult afflicting the Arab world," he said.

Egypt had pushed for the creation of the rapid response force to fight militants, and the matter gained urgency this week after Saudi Arabia and Arab allies launched air strikes on Huthi rebels in Yemen.

A handout picture made available by the Egyptian presidency shows Egyptian

 President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (C) speaking during a closed session with Arab

 leaders during the Arab League summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm 

El-Sheikh on March 28, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Arabi, reading a statement at the conclusion of the summit, said on Sunday the offensive would continue until the Huthis withdraw from regions they have overrun and surrender their weapons.

Several Arab states including Egypt are taking part in the military campaign, which Saudi King Salman said on Saturday would continue until the Yemeni people "enjoy security".

'Months to create'

Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi at the start of the summit called for the offensive to end only when the Huthis "surrender", calling the rebel leader an Iranian "puppet".

However, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the leaders to find a peaceful resolution in Yemen.

"It is my fervent hope that at this Arab League summit, leaders will lay down clear guidelines to peacefully resolve the crisis in Yemen," he said.

James Dorsey, a Middle East analyst with the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that despite support for a joint-Arab force, "it would still take months to create and then operate on an ad-hoc basis.

"I don't think we will get an integrated command anytime soon, as no Arab leader would cede control of any part of their army anytime soon," he said.

"Today we will have a formal declaration that would be negotiated every time during action."

Sisi said in a recent interview that the proposal for a joint force was welcomed especially by Jordan, which might take part alongside Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

Saudi Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri, spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition

 forces, speaks to the media next to a replica of a Tornado fighter jet (AFP

Photo/Fayez Nureldine)

Aaron Reese, deputy research director at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said "each of these countries would bring a different capability.

"The Jordanians are well known for their special forces capability... the Egyptians of course have the most manpower and bases close to Libya."

Before Egyptian air strikes in February targeting the IS in Libya, the United Arab Emirates, which shares Cairo's antipathy towards Islamists, had reportedly used Egyptian bases to launch its own air strikes there.

Cairo had sought UN backing for intervention in Libya, dismissing attempted peace talks between the rival governments in its violence-plagued North African neighbour as ineffective.

Asean peacekeeping force (JG Graphics/Josep Tri Ronggo)

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Myanmar conflict: Chinese mercenaries said to be fighting with rebels

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-02-26

An injured Myanmar Red Cross volunteer lies on the ground after their convoy
 was attacked near the self-administered Kokang capital of Laukkai on
Feb. 17, 2015. (Photo/CFP)

Chinese mercenaries have been taking part in the armed conflict between the Myanmar government and ethnic rebel forces near the Myanmar-Chinese border, reports the Chinese-language Guancha Syndicate.

At a press conference in the Myanmar capital of Naypyidaw on Feb. 21, a Myanmar Armed Forces spokesperson said the Chinese mercenaries have been fighting for the rebel's National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) led by Pheung Kya-shin, the chief of the Kokang Special Region in northern Myanmar who only re-emerged late last year. Pheung, 84, had been laying low since the violent Kokang incident in August 2009 when he was driven out by his competitors in the army loyal to the Myanmar government.

The information was said to have been divulged by eight rebel militants captured by government forces during a deadly clash in Kokang on Feb. 9. The captives also revealed that some of the Chinese mercenaries are retired People's Liberation Army soldiers.

Zaw Htay, director of Myanmar's presidential office, said Naypyidaw believes Beijing would not interfere in Myanmar's internal political situation because China has nothing to do with the Kokang rebels' long-term struggle for autonomy and independence from the government.

Pheung is suspected, however, of having contacts at the grassroots level in China as there is evidence that members of the NDAA have received medical treatment at a Chinese hospital near the border, Htay added.

Htay also denied killing civilians in the Feb. 9 conflict as alleged, claiming that Kokang rebels had "infiltrated the town and were pretending to be civilians." Government soldiers "shoot only when there is strong evidence," he said, adding, "I would like to categorically state that these accusations are untrue."

Since the latest round of clashes began, the goverment has lost seven officers and 47 soldiers, with more than a hundred others wounded, Htay said, whereas the NDAA has lost a total of 72 people.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a Feb. 16 press briefing, "China always respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar and does not allow any organization or individual to spoil China-Myanmar relations and undermine stability of the border area on the Chinese territory."

"We hope that all conflicting parties of Myanmar can exercise restraint, and prevent the situation from escalating and affecting the stability of China-Myanmar border area and the security on the Chinese side," Hua said, adding, "China is ready to continue with its constructive role in the peace process within Myanmar in accordance with the wish of the Myanmar side."

　

Philippines, Muslim rebels seal historic peace deal

Google – AFP, Karl Malakunas (AFP), 27 March 2014

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels celebrate the signing of the peace

 agreement during a rally at Camp Darapanan, in the southern island of Mindanao, 

on March 27, 2014 (AFP, Ted Aljibe)

Manila — The biggest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines signed an historic pact Thursday to end one of Asia's longest and deadliest conflicts, promising to give up their arms for an autonomous homeland.

Following four decades of fighting that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed the peace deal with President Benigno Aquino's government at a high-profile ceremony in Manila.

"The comprehensive agreement on Bangsamoro is the crowning glory of our struggle," MILF chairman Murad Ebrahim said at the signing ceremony, using a local term that refers to a Muslim homeland.

Philippines President Benigno Aquino

 (right) shares sweets with Moro Islamic

 Liberation Front (MILF) chief Murad

Ebrahim during a visit to the rebels

stronghold in Sultan Kudarat, on

February 11, 2012 (AFP/File, Karlos

Manlupig)

"With this agreement the legitimate aspirations of the Bangsamoro and the commitment of the government of the Philippines to recognise those aspirations are now sealed."

The pact makes the MILF and the government partners in a plan to create a southern autonomous region for the Philippines' Muslim minority with locally elected leaders by mid-2016.

"What is being presented before us now is a path that can lead to a permanent change in Muslim Mindanao," Aquino said at the ceremony, attended by more than 1,000 people.

The Bangsamoro region would cover about 10 percent of territory in the mainly Catholic Philippines. The planned region has a majority of Muslims, but there are clusters of Catholic-dominated communities.

Muslim rebels have been battling since the 1970s for independence or autonomy in the southern islands of the Philippines, which they regard as their ancestral homeland dating back to when Arabic traders arrived there in the 13th Century.

The conflict has condemned millions of people across large parts of the resource-rich Mindanao region to brutal poverty, plagued by Muslim and Christian warlords as well as outbreaks of fighting that has led to mass displacements.

The conflict and poverty have also been fertile conditions for Islamic extremism, with the Al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group and other hardline militants making remote regions of Mindanao their strongholds.

The MILF, which the military estimates has 10,000 fighters, is easily the biggest Muslim rebel group in Mindanao, and the political settlement was greeted with relief and optimism in the south.

Graphic fact file on the Moro Islamic LIberation Front (MILF), in a new peace

 deal the Philippines government after decades of conflict that has claimed about

150,000 lives (Graphic/AFP)

"I am really happy. In the face of all the hardship of our parents, we the next generation hope and pray that Christians and Muslims will have peace," Mona Rakman, 42, a mother of four who lives close to the MILF headquarters, told AFP.

The autonomous region would have its own police force, a regional parliament and power to levy taxes, while revenues from the region's vast deposits of natural resources would be split with the national government.

It would have a secular government, rather than being an Islamic state. The national government would retain control over defence, foreign policy, currency and citizenship.

There are about 10 million Muslims in the Philippines, roughly 10 percent of the population, according to government statistics. Most live in the south of the country.

Fragile peace

However there are no guarantees the peace deal will be implemented by the middle of 2016, a crucial deadline as that is when Aquino is required by the constitution to end his six-year term.

Aquino needs to convince Congress to pass a "basic law" to create the Bangsamoro autonomous region, ideally by the end of this year to allow time for other steps such as a local plebiscite.

But even though Aquino's ruling coalition has a loose majority and he enjoys record-high popularity ratings, there are concerns politicians could reject or water down the proposed law.

Young Muslims hold a Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) miniature flag as
they gather for a rally in support of the
peace agreement with the government in
 Cotabato City, on the southern island of
Mindanao, on March 27, 2014 (AFP,
Ted Aljibe)

Powerful Christian politicians in Mindanao are regarded as potential deal breakers, while others elsewhere may see political advantage in opposing the deal to appeal to some Catholics ahead of the 2016 national elections.

The deal is also likely to be challenged in the Supreme Court, which in 2008 struck down a planned peace deal the MILF had negotiated with Aquino's predecessor, Gloria Arroyo.

Islamic militants opposed to the peace deal are another threat, and could continue to create enduring violence in Mindanao.

Among the potential spoilers is the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, an MILF splinter group of a few hundred militants that has carried out deadly attacks in the south in recent years.

"We will continue to fight against the government of the Republic of the Philippines because we are for independence and nothing else," BIFF spokesman Abu Missry Mama told AFP by phone from his southern hideout.

The MILF leadership has committed to working with the government to neutralise the threat of the BIFF.

However the MILF will not give up its arms or the identities of its fighters until the basic law has been passed, highlighting the fragility of Thursday's peace deal.

Philippine government and Muslim rebels complete peace deal talks

Deutsche Welle, 25 January 2014

The Philippine government and the country's largest Muslim rebel group say they have clinched a peace deal to end four decades of fighting. But implementation could still pose a problem.

The accord on normalization between Filipino negotiators and the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) calls for Muslim self-rule in parts of the southern Philippines. In exchange, MILF has agreed to decommission its forces.

The deal reached on Saturday in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, is the last of four power-sharing accords that have been agreed between the government and MILF rebels as part of a final peace settlement.

The two sides have previously signed agreements on transition arrangements, wealth sharing and power sharing, after signing a preliminary peace plan in October 2012. Malaysia-brokered negotiations to tame the insurgency have been runnning since 1997.

The final comprehensive agreement is to be signed in the near future in Manila, the Philippine capital.

New autonomous entity

Under Saturday's agreement, rebels will turn over their weapons to a third party jointly selected by MILF and the government. In return, a regional police force would be established in the new Muslim autonomous area, which is to be called "Bangsamoro," in 2016. At the same time, the Philippine army would draw down its own troops in the region.

The new entity will largely control natural resources in the southern region of Mindanao, where more than 120,000 people have died in a bloody conflict that started in the 1970s.

Chief government negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer (pictured left) welcomed the end to formal negotiations on a peace settlement, but said the bigger challenge of implementation still had to be overcome.

There are still at least four other smaller armed rebel groups operating in the south that are likely to hinder the restoration of peace in the region.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino has said he hopes to secure a final peace settlement before leaving office in mid-2016.

tj/rc (dpa, AFP, AP)

Filipinas Take on Rebels to Unlock $300b

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Philippines, Muslim rebels sign 'power sharing' accord

Google – AFP, 8 December 2013

A combat police force sniper gets into position to confront Moro National

 Liberation Front rebels in downtown Zamboanga City in the Philippines on

September 9, 2013 (AFP/File)

Manila — The Philippine government and Muslim rebels on Sunday signed a crucial power sharing accord, paving the way for a final peace agreement aimed at ending a decades-long insurgency that has killed tens of thousands.

The power sharing annex had been considered highly contentious, with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels seeking greater authority over a proposed autonomous region in the south which will cover Muslim-dominated regions of this mainly-Catholic archipelago of 100 million.

The accord, signed by negotiators from the government and MILF representatives in Kuala Lumpur, is yet another step towards finally ending the bloody insurgency in the southern Philippines.

A joint statement said both sides had signed "the agreement on the delineation and sharing of power between the central government and the Bangsamoro (Filipino Muslim) Government" within the projected autonomous area.

The statement added that both parties were now "confident" that they could soon sign the last remaining annex on normalisation and complete the comprehensive peace agreement by January 2014.

"The signing of the Annex on Power Sharing ensures the achievement of a genuine and viable autonomy for the Bangsamoro," Teresita Deles, the head of the government peace panel, said in a statement.

"It has been a very difficult round but we were able to overcome a lot of obstacles."

President Benigno Aquino congratulated both parties on the annex, his spokesman Herminio Coloma said.

Copies of the agreement, released late Sunday, outline the powers that will be reserved by the national government, those that will held by the government of the autonomous area and those that will be shared by both.

The accord also sets the parameters of the "Bangsamoro assembly" that will govern the autonomous area while ensuring that tribal groups, Christian settlers and women are represented.

While foreign policy, defence, monetary policy, immigration and global trade will remain under the control of national government, the Bangsamoro government will have powers over agriculture, employment, urban development, public works and environmental protection, the agreement said.

In an interview with ABS-CBN television, Deles described the move to power-sharing as "the heart of the entire peace accord."

The two sides in October last year had signed an initial pact on ending the conflict that has claimed an estimated 150,000 lives, in preparation for a final agreement.

Soldiers wear gas masks due to the smell of decaying bodies as they patrol on

 September 26, 2013 among destroyed houses at the site of fighting between

government forces and Moro Liberation Front rebels in the Santa Catalina area

of Zamboanga City (AFP/File, Frederick Alvarez)

Under the plan, the 12,000-strong MILF would give up its quest for an independent homeland in the southern island of Mindanao in return for significant power and wealth-sharing in a new autonomous region there.

Lingering obstacles

The newly-signed power sharing annex had been one of four preliminary accords that had to be completed before a final peace deal could be signed.

Two other annexes on transitional arrangements and sharing of revenues had already been signed earlier this year while a fourth annex, on normalisation, including the possible disarming of MILF guerrillas, is still being discussed.

The normalisation annex may also prove difficult as the rebels will likely be reluctant to lay down their arms.

MILF negotiator Mohagher Iqbal was quoted by ABS-CBN as saying that the next round of talks would also be difficult and that both sides should not be complacent.

Even after the treaty is signed, the Philippine parliament would still need to pass a "basic law" for the Muslim self-rule area, and people in the planned autonomous region would need to ratify it via a regional plebiscite.

However President Aquino in October had expressed confidence that the insurgency could be settled before he steps down in 2016.

Completing the agreement during Aquino's term is considered vital as there is no guarantee his successor would have the political strength or enthusiasm to push ahead with the peace process.

Muslim rebels have been fighting since the 1970s for an autonomous or independent homeland in the southern Philippines in a conflict that has left the resource-rich region mired in poverty and instability.

Other Muslim armed groups have violently opposed the MILF's moves towards peace.

Followers of Nur Misuari, founder of the older Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), from which the MILF sprang, besieged the southern Philippine city of Zamboanga in September, sparking three weeks of fighting which left over 200 people dead.

Misuari allegedly ordered the assault, fearing a peace accord with the MILF would leave him sidelined.

The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a guerilla group that splintered from the MILF, has also tried to derail the peace process, launching bloody attacks against government forces in the south.