Duterte offers Muslim self-rule

Manila : President Rodrigo Duterte offered self-rule to the Philippines’ Muslim minority yesterday in an attempt to defeat Islamist militants who seized a southern city in the gravest challenge to his year-old rule.

Duterte hopes the promise of autonomy will persuade Filipino Muslims to reject the Islamic State group, whose followers still control parts of Marawi after two months of fighting that had left more than 500 people dead.

Duterte vowed to shepherd through Congress a “Bangsamoro Basic Law” bill jointly written and submitted to him yesterday by government officials and the country’s largest Muslim guerrilla group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“This moment is a significant step forward in our quest to end centuries of hatred, mistrust and injustice that cost and affected the lives of millions of Filipinos,” he said in a speech to MILF leaders and government officials.

Both sides said that giving the mainly Catholic nation’s large and largely impoverished Islamic minority a better choice was crucial to heading off the lure of violent extremism.