Philippines Supreme Court halts Manila’s deal with Muslims, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Philippines Supreme Court halts Manila’s deal with Muslims

Govt welcomes court’s move as Catholics protest territorial deal

Under the territorial agreement, an existing autonomous region for Muslims in the south of the largely Catholic country would be widened and they would get broad political and economic powers. But the agreement’s hasty conclusion on the eve of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s annual state speech last month and its generous provisions to the MILF on mineral wealth prompted some analysts to dismiss it as political window dressing. “I think it was all teed up as a bone on the eve of Arroyo’s state of the nation address. I think it was strictly done for that purpose,” said Scott Harrison, managing director of risk consultancy Pacific Strategies and Assessments. MILF officials, already in Malaysia for the signing ceremony, were dismayed at the Supreme Court move. “I don’t know what will happen next,” Mohaqher Iqbal, the MILF’s chief peace negotiator, told reporters.

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