Catholics plan protests against Manila's deal with MILF

Manila: Catholic officials from two cities in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao are calling for protests next week against a government deal that increases the size of an autonomous region for Muslims.

The agreement between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has taken more than 10 years to negotiate, gives more land to minority Muslims in the largely Catholic state and also gives them broader political and economic powers.

"This is treason," Maria Isabel Climaco, a member of the lower house of Congress representing Zamboanga City, told reporters.

"The government has allowed Mindanao to be dismembered from this country. We were never consulted and I would oppose that deal in Congress," Climaco added.

More than 120,000 people have been killed, 2 million displaced and economic growth stunted across the whole of Mindanao, a region rich in nickel, gold and copper, due to 40 years of conflict between Muslims seeking some form of independence and the central government.

The proposed new Muslim state would receive 75 per cent of all central government revenues from resources found in the ancestral area. It would also have broad political, economic and cultural powers but would not have control over defence, foreign and monetary policies.

This week, the Supreme Court asked government lawyers to respond to a petition by a governor and congresswoman from North Cotabato province asking that the signing be stopped.

But the court did not issue an order halting the signing in Kuala Lumpur on August 5.

The mayors of Zamboanga and Iligan said on Saturday they would also ask the Supreme Court to block the signing.

"Let's stop them from signing that agreement," Celso Lobregat, mayor of Zamboanga City, told local radio on Saturday.

"Let us not look at ourselves alone, this is a fight for the whole of Mindanao and the country."

Lobregat said many businesses had agreed to close on Monday to join the protest.

Lawrence Cruz, the mayor of Iligan in Lanao del Norte province, said he was organising similar protests.