Pact With Muslim Insurgents Prompts Celebrations, Protests It’s A Major Achievement For The Philippines’ Ramos

The government and Muslim insurgents signed a final agreement Monday ending a 26-year rebellion that cost more than 120,000 lives, prompting celebrations in Manila and protests in the south.

The pact is a major achievement for President Fidel Ramos, with the government agreeing to provide increased autonomy to Muslim areas in the southern Philippines and the rebels dropping their demand for a separate religious state.

Outside Manila’s Malacanang presidential palace, several thousand Christian and Muslim supporters of the agreement released yellow and blue balloons and honked car horns to celebrate the pact.

But in southern Iligan City, the city government flew flags at half-staff and about 4,000 city employees and others attended a rally against the agreement.

“Here in Iligan there is only worry and cries of sadness, not of joy,” said City Councilman Lawrence Cruz. The agreement, he said, “is driving a wedge between the Christians and Muslims.”

And in Zamboanga City, a new militant Christian group declared war against supporters of the agreement. The group, the Mindanao Christian Unified Command, is blamed for three small explosions Friday.

Many Christians living in the southern Philippines fear the pact gives too much power to the rebels.

But at Monday’s signing ceremony inside the palace, both sides praised the agreement.

More than 1,500 government and rebel officials - some in colorful traditional dress - and representatives of Muslim nations watched rebel chief Nur Misuari and chief government negotiator Manuel Yan sign the agreement, finalized just last week.

“This could mean the end of scourge and darkness for our people,” Misuari said.

Misuari, a 56-year-old former university professor, had trimmed his beard for the ceremony and donned a dark suit and fez instead of his former battle fatigues.

With the pact, Misuari was transformed from a jungle pariah into a senior political statesman. He has accepted an offer to join mainstream politics as a ruling party candidate for governor in an election next week, and Vice President Joseph Estrada has asked him to be his running mate in the next presidential poll.

The pact also is a boon to Ramos, who has sought since taking office four years ago to settle three separate insurgencies - by Muslim rebels, Communists and right-wing soldiers - that have destabilized the nation and impeded economic growth.