Rebels sworn in as leaders of Bangsamoro region in Philippines

President Duterte personally swore in Murad Ebrahim as interim chief minister at a ceremony in Manila

The rebellion began in the early 1970s as a bid to set up a separate Muslim state in the Mindanao region

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President Rodrigo Duterte attends the oath-taking ceremony for the creation of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority at the Presidential Palace in Manila. Photo: AP

Published: 9:18pm, 22 Feb 2019Updated: 9:18pm, 22 Feb 2019

The Philippines on Friday handed over the reins of a new Muslim-led territory to rebel leaders, who waged a decades-long fight for autonomy, but are now tasked with securing peace and prosperity.

President Rodrigo Duterte personally swore in Murad Ebrahim, head of the Catholic-majority nation’s largest Muslim group, as interim chief minister at a symbolic Manila ceremony.

It comes after voters decisively backed in January the founding of the so-called Bangsamoro region in the south, the culmination of a peace deal to end a separatist insurgency that had killed some 150,000 people since the 1970s.

Duterte and Murad, leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), have both said they hope the pact will help head off the rise of Islamist extremism in the country’s southern region of Mindanao.

“The road to peace may be long and rough, but I am glad that we’ve finally reached its end point,” Duterte said in a speech after also swearing the other members of a Bangsamoro transition government.

“Most of all we would like to see an end to the violence that has wracked Mindanao and have cost so many lives for nothing,” the president added.

Murad’s MILF signed a peace treaty with the Philippine government in 2014, and the country’s legislature last year passed a law creating the self-rule area, which voters later ratified.