Muslim voters in southern Philippines asked to endorse peace pact terms

MARAWI, Philippines — Muslims in the southern Philippines voted Monday in a referendum on a new autonomous region that seeks to end nearly half a century of unrest, in what their leaders are touting as the best alternative to a new wave of Islamic State-inspired militants.

The vote caps a tumultuous peace effort by the government in Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main rebel group, to seal a deal that was signed in 2014 but languished in the Philippine Congress until it was finally approved last year. Bloodshed including the siege of Marawi city by Islamic State-linked militants and other bombings and attacks in the South threatened to derail it.