MANILA, Philippines

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Where before his predecessor has failed, President Aquino on Thursday presided over the signing of a historic peace agreement with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels after 17 years of negotiations carving a new, autonomous Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.

Exuberant over the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in Malacañang, the President warned dissenters against “snatching peace away” from Filipinos, but at the same time, exhorted Filipinos to trade “bullets for a ripening fruit.”

In the signing of the breakthrough agreement with the MILF, the President laid down the road map to the ratification of the Bangsamoro basic law, and the eventual participation of the Bangsamoro people in the 2016 elections.

“If we sustain the momentum for peace, by 2016, the MILF will have shed its identity as a military force, and transformed itself into a political entity, casting its stake in democracy by vying for seats in the Bangsamoro elections,” he said.

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