Duterte renews Mindanao peace push amid Marawi stand-off

President Rodrigo Duterte is seeking to revive a peace accord aimed at ending decades of insurgency in Mindanao in the southern Philippines, where government troops have battled Islamic State-linked militants for two months.

As much as 30 per cent of the bill that Duterte’s predecessor failed to pass has been revised, with the draft now providing for other Muslim groups to be included in the process, Moro Islamic Liberation Front chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said on Monday at a forum in Manila.

Mineral deposits in Mindanao, a region that holds half of the country’s reserves, will be co-managed by the government and the Muslim autonomous region, he said.

The proposed bill will be submitted for Duterte’s approval at the presidential palace this afternoon, his spokesman Ernesto Abella said at a briefing. Duterte, who was mayor of Davao City for two decades before becoming president, will also push for the measure in a meeting later on Monday with lawmakers. The heads of the Senate and House of Representatives are both from Mindanao.

The government is targeting to pass the bill in the first quarter of 2018, its chief negotiator Irene Santiago said.