Filipino Muslims approve new referendum

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Bangsamoro Autonomous Region ratified

MANILA, Jan 26, (AP): Muslims in the southern Philippines overwhelmingly approved in a referendum the creation of a new autonomous region in hopes of ending nearly half a century of unrest, election officials said.

The Commission on Elections announced late Friday that the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is deemed ratified following a referendum on Monday. It says 1.5 million people voted in favor.

Bangsamoro replaces an existing poverty-wracked autonomous region with a larger, better-funded and more powerful entity.

It is the result of a tumultuous peace effort by the government in Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main Muslim rebel group, to seal a deal that was signed in 2014 but languished in the Philippine Congress until it was finally approved last year. Bloodshed including the siege of Marawi city by Islamic Statelinked militants and other bombings and attacks in the south threatened to derail it.
Commissioner Susana Anayatin of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission said that the ratification of the autonomy law “marks the beginning of a new government and another journey toward peace.”

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