Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday approved a long-awaited law to allow minority Muslims in the south to start moving towards self-rule by 2022, a bid to tackle extremism and defuse a half-century of separatist conflict, The Strait Times reports. In a historic move last May, the Philippine House of Representatives approved the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which seeks to abolish the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and replace it with the Bangsamoro region. The leader of the largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines said Tuesday that 30,000 to 40,000 armed fighters would be “decommissioned” if an autonomy deal signed into law by the president is fully enforced.