MANILA — President Benigno S. Aquino III on Wednesday submitted a draft law to the Philippine Congress that would create a self-governed, predominantly Muslim autonomous region in the country’s south, a major step in peace talks meant to end more than four decades of fighting with Muslim rebels.

“This law is for the children who wish to run across school grounds instead of running for their lives,” Mujiv S. Hataman, a politician in the southern Philippines, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This law is for families who want to put life into the earth through crops and produce, no longer to dig graves for their fathers and sons who have fallen in war. This law is what will help them realize their wishes and dreams.”

The long-running conflict between the government and Muslim fighters in the south has killed thousands of people and displaced more than three million. It has also left Mindanao, the largest island in the southern Philippines, mired in poverty and lawlessness despite being rich in resources that include natural gas, gold and other valuable minerals.

The draft law that Mr. Aquino submitted to the Philippine Congress on Wednesday stems from an October 2012 peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the largest of the Muslim rebel groups. It would group Muslim-dominated southern areas into what would be called the Bangsamoro region, based on the traditional name of Filipino Muslims.