President Fidel Ramos and Muslim rebel leader Nur Misuari embraced Monday in a muddy schoolyard on southern Mindanao island in a gesture that symbolized an end to 24 years of a vicious and often-forgotten civil war in the south.
Five-hundred schoolchildren cheered the accord, which has infuriated local Christians who say it gives too much power to the rebels. Muslim extremists, meanwhile, complain that it falls well short of their ambition for an independent homeland.
Under the complicated peace agreement, Misuari’s National Moro Liberation Front, the main rebel force, will supervise public life for three years in four southern provinces. Then a plebiscite will decide whether the inhabitants want to join a new Muslim region comprising 14 provinces.
About 5,500 of Misuari’s fighters are to be incorporated in the local Philippines armed forces, and another 1,500 fighters — of the 17,000-strong guerrilla force — will become part of the local police force.
Ramos, who sees peace with the Muslims and a rebel communist party as necessary for economic developmment in this country of 7,000 islands, remained pragmatic about the agreement he brokered despite accusations he may be giving away part of the country.
“I am fully aware of the apprehensions of some groups in Mindanao, and I realize we cannot wipe out centuries of misunderstanding and decades of mutual distrust and conflict overnight,” he said at Monday’s meeting.
Filipino soldiers and guerrillas came to the schoolyard at Lanao del Sur in central Mindanao with their pistol holsters empty and their M-16 automatic rifles parked out of sight.
It was the first time in 10 years that Ramos had met with Misuari, a former university professor who lived in exile in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, before returning to lead the rebellion from a small southern island.
The guerrilla leader has been full of praise for Ramos, whom Muslims consider the only leader in decades to make a serious attempt to end a conflict on Mindanao that has tied up military resources since the 1970s.
“It’s peace now or never!” Misuari called to the assembled fighters and schoolchildren.
But he made it clear his movement still wants an autonomous Muslim region in the south, an age-old dream of his fellow believers who once watched as their lands were invaded by Christian settlers, now the majority on Mindanao.
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Both the president and the guerrilla leader realize it might take more than rhetoric and good will to heal the wounds left by a war in which 120,000 people died.
Many Filipinos fear that, once in control of southern Mindanao, the Muslims will ally themselves with next-door Malaysia and Indonesia, both Muslim nations, rather than keep their ties with Manila.
The peace accord is to be signed in Manila on Sept. 2. It will officially end a war that has crippled the development of one of the Philippines’ most fertile and mineral-rich islands.