Finally, something positive to report:
"Philippine president, Muslim rebels near accord" Associated Press September 09, 2014
MANILA — President Benigno Aquino III and a Muslim rebel leader secretly met last week and helped resolve thorny differences over a proposed autonomy law that threatened to stall efforts to end decades of rebellion in the south, officials and the insurgents said Monday.
Aquino and Al Haj Murad Ebrahim of the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front agreed to endorse a draft of the proposed legislation after meeting for more than two hours at the presidential palace Thursday, presidential adviser Teresita Deles said.
Aquino will submit the bill to Congress on Wednesday, advancing efforts to end one of southeast Asia’s longest-raging Muslim insurgencies.
The rebellion has killed thousands and hampered progress in a resource-rich region that is home to minority Muslims in this largely Roman Catholic nation.
The government and the Moro insurgent group, the largest of at least four in the south, signed a new deal in March that aims to establish a more powerful and potentially larger Muslim autonomous region to be called Bangsamoro. Under the deal, the rebels agreed to eventually disband their guerrilla forces.
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"Philippines plans to give Muslims autonomous zone" Associated Press September 11, 2014
MANILA — The president of the overwhelmingly Catholic Philippines proposed Wednesday to give Muslims in the south the ability to run their own government under their own flag, part of a peace plan aimed at ending a four-decade rebellion that has killed 150,000 people.
The draft law submitted by President Benigno Aquino III to Congress fleshes out a peace deal signed in March by the country’s largest Muslim insurgent group, the 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The autonomous region in the southern island of Mindanao, to be called Bangsamoro, would get its own 60-member Parliament that would wield exclusive power over such areas as agriculture, trade, tourism, and education.
Under the proposal, Islamic Sharia law would apply to Muslims in the region, but the country’s justice system would continue to apply to non-Muslims. The Moro group has renounced the terrorist acts of extremist groups, including the Islamic State, which is seeking to impose a harsh version of Sharia law in areas under its control in Syria and Iraq.
The autonomous zone, which generally covers five provinces, would replace an existing one, seen as a dismal failure. The new plan grants much more autonomy to the region.
The rebels have been fighting since the 1970s for Muslim self-rule in Mindanao in an insurrection that has killed about 150,000 combatants and civilians.
I generally find that good except where the EUSraeli empire means to break things up (like in Iraq).
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Also related:
"In the Philippines on Monday, retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz led a group of nuns, priests, and laity in joining a “Stand Up Against Pork” rally in Manila’s Rizal Park. It was part of a widespread popular push to eliminate provisions in the national budget providing lump-sum allocations to lawmakers to use however they like, which critics see as an especially galling form of patronage and corruption.
The Catholic Church is a major backer of the reform effort, conducting its own signature campaign out of parishes and dioceses to eliminate pork barrel spending.
In places such as the Philippines, corruption is a signature Catholic concern, and with good reason. Global Financial Integrity, a research organization based in Washington, estimates that corruption cost poor nations almost $6 trillion over the last decade, draining badly needed resources for education, health care, and poverty relief."
