The government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front signed a “wealth-sharing” deal that gives the militant Islamist group a 75 percent share of earnings from natural resources and metallic minerals in a region to be set aside for the Muslim minority in southern Mindanao; in addition, the government and the MILF will split energy earnings equally. A final peace deal with the 12,000-strong MILF remains to be worked out; still to be decided is how the rebels will disarm, and the extent of the proposed autonomous region, which is believed to contain hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of gold, copper, and other mineral reserves.
