2021-02-17 09:15:03

Philippine president approves amnesty program for rebels

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The Philippine president has approved an amnesty program for Muslim and communist rebels who would agree to surrender their weapons as they return to normal life in the latest such attempt to tame rural insurgencies that have raged for half a century. Thousands of guerrillas belonging to two large Muslim groups in the country’s south and a communist rebel faction could apply for the amnesty within a year after it gets approved by Congress, according to President Rodrigo Duterte’s signed orders made public late Tuesday. Leaders of the largest armed group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, have been put in charge temporarily of administering a new Muslim autonomous region in the south while thousands of its fighters are disarmed.

17 February