The Philippine Government on December 24 revealed its plan to finalise the framework agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) in 2014, which is seen to help end its four-decade armed conflict with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest southern Islamic group.

An announcement of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) Peace Panel said the agency has set a target of completing the annex on normalisation as well as an addendum on the Bangsamoro’s waters in the early next year.

The normalisation annex, which is the fourth and last one of the FAB, will be signed between Manila and the MILF.

This year, the GPH and MILF inked the annexes on transitional arrangement and modalities (TAM), and wealth-sharing and power-sharing.

According to GPH Peace Panel Chair Miriam Coronel Ferrer, in 2014, the GPH will work closely with the Transition Commission headed by MILF’s chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal to ensure that the Basic Law on Bangsamoro will be adopted smoothly.

The GPH and MILF signed a historical agreement on establishing the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region on October 15, 2012, paving the way for the setting up of the Bangsamoro region to replace the Mindanao Muslim Autonomous Region in the south in 2016.

The MILF has conducted anti-government activities since 1970s with the aim of founding its independent government in Mindanao Island and several other islands in the south.

The front’s attacks over the last four decades took the lives of at least 120,000 people and forced 2 million others in the south to abandon their homes.-VNA