Les Jones

Phillipines Concedes Territory to Muslim Separatists

Thursday, November 29th, 2007 | News |

You didn’t hear a lot about this:

The agreement on the extent of territory to be handed over had been a major stumbling block in the peace talks that opened when a ceasefire was forged with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2001. The two sides did not disclose the new borders agreed after two days of talks here, but Malaysian officials said the territory would be greater than the present autonomous region in the troubled island of Mindanao.

“After more than three decades of problems in Mindanao, it is for the government to give concessions. It could not be the other side, so the government has to concede what it think is reasonable,” said Philippines chief negotiator Rodolfo Garcia. In an issue known as “ancestral domain,” the land in question consists of untitled communal farms that came under formal state ownership when the Philippines became a Spanish colony in the late 16th century.

“Andalusia here we come.”

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