It is essentially the granting of land in lieu of secession. Does the President of the Philippines have such power?
The president is relieved that an agreement she (her administration) negotiated is now “on hold”? She wanted it before but now does not? Islam is the religion of about 20 percent of Mindanao, if I am correctly informed. That translates into less political power than what this agreement seems to give. And the MILF’s goal is autonomy, not just a quasi-independent entity. (And MILF is not an obscenity, it is the acronym for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an acronym of longstanding.) If this current agreement is put into place, it will only be a way station for the more radical Islamists, particularly in the western portion of Mindanao. Autonomy is the goal.