The Rodrigo Duterte Policy to Bangsamoro in the Southern Philippines

Abstract

The restive Bangsamoro minority's struggle for rights is part of the enduring Muslim South - Christian North political conflict in the Philippines. The Philippine government's efforts to negotiate a peace agreement with the Muslim minority have hit deadlocks and mismatches between the goals of the two parties. Specifically, this study used content analysis to examine the Philippine government's strategy during the Rodrigo Duterte era in realizing peace for this protracted conflict with the Bangsamoro minority group. The results showed that Rodrigo Duterte as achieved peace in the Bangsamoro through mediation and negotiation, tools used by the previous government. In addition, Duterte's commitment became more significant by granting regional autonomy rights to Bangsamoro.The critical element enabler of Duterte's strategy was the dual-track negotiations.