© Romeo Ranoco / Reuters
It's hoped the move will stem the rise of extremism in a region which has seen 500 people killed and thousands more displaced during the most recent conflict between Philippines forces and militants linked to the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in the island's capital city of Marawi.
"This moment is a significant step forward in our quest to end centuries of hatred, mistrust and injustice that cost and affected the lives of millions of Filipinos," Duterte said in a speech Monday, as cited by Reuters.
Muslim extremists have been engaged in a decades-long insurgency which has claimed the lives of 100,000 people on Mindanao since the 1970s.
The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which proposes executive, legislative and fiscal autonomy for Muslim-majority areas of Mindanao, was the product of a peace agreement between the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Manila government in 2014.
Despite the bill being dogged by delays, the government is hopeful it will pass into law within the year.
"The next 12 months are full of opportunity but also fraught with so much danger. The dangers are staring us in the face: violent extremism, the source of the crisis in Marawi," said Irene Santiago, the government's chief peace negotiator.
Speaking at a MILF meeting Monday, the group's chairman Al Haj Ebrahim said he believes the delay in passing BBL has led directly to the Marawi conflict.
"We live in very dangerous times... we watch with utter disgust of the destruction that violent extremism has inflicted in the city of Marawi," Ebrahim said.
"These misguided people have filled the vacuum created by our failure to enact the basic law and (they) feed into the frustration of our people."
Meanwhile, Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law on Mindanao until the end of the year.
The constitution limits martial rule to 60 days but Congress can vote for an extension.
"The primary objective of the possible extension is to allow our forces to continue with their operations unhampered by deadlines and to focus more on the liberation of Marawi and its rehabilitation and rebuilding," said Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella, reading a letter signed by Duterte.
Makes me think that at this point in history in the making, undoubtedly a very crucial juncture. Globally. That the US empire is stalking the planet with all sorts of plagues in the bag of tricks, threatening, destroying, and so on like an out of control gorilla, trying to impose on and control all of it, that nations that want to remain, or regain independence, must really stamp out corruption and inequality as much as possible. The US covets inequality, or corruption, to use against independent governments to topple in a popular uprising. Any gross inequality, or corruption will be pounced on by various NGOs and democracy promoting groups. Its happened all too often. Basically, what i am suggesting is nations, and humanity in general will have to grow up, or perish perhaps? Mr Putin gets it, Xi gets it, some others too. A fairly decent media educating the masses is essential. Mr Gurdjieff spoke about a time allotted to human beings within the ray of creation, that a certain evolutionary development must take place, or the ray of creation will end on this branch should this not occur. Maybe this is the time we are living in now? He also said 200 conscious humans could change the course of this world, should they so choose.