MANILA, Philippines—The Moro people would have wide powers over their resource-rich local economy in Mindanao, including the right to revoke existing mineral contracts, if an eventual peace deal is agreed with the Philippine government.
A future government of a new autonomous Muslim region, known as the Bangsamoro homeland, would have full responsibility for land use, the right to explore and exploit all potential sources of energy, both onshore and offshore, and the right to develop mineral resources, according to a copy of a draft territorial agreement.
“It is essential to lay the foundation of the Bangsamoro homeland in order to address the Bangsamoro people’s humanitarian and economic needs as well as their political aspirations,” the document reads.
Autonomous region
The territorial deal, which expands an existing six-province autonomous region and has taken over 10 years to negotiate, is set to be signed in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday.
The agreement is a crucial step toward the resumption of formal peace talks between the Philippines’ largest Moro rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the government but it does not guarantee an end to one of Southeast Asia’s most intractable conflicts.
If peace talks fail or stall, which analysts say is highly likely, the territorial deal will not go through. Legal attempts to halt it have already started and Catholic politicians have called protests against it for Monday.
Continuity of rules
But even signaling the right of a future government of the Bangsamoro homeland to cancel or modify existing mineral production and sharing agreements will chill foreign investors already leery of pouring funds into the Philippines due to flip-flopping laws.
“If a peace agreement is reached that would send a positive signal,” said Peter Wallace, president of consultancy firm The Wallace Business Forum.
“But we don’t have confidence of continuity of rules, laws, regulations. They seem to be changed more or less at will and this makes investment very difficult,” Wallace said.
Nickel firm not worried
A wider homeland could include, subject to plebiscite, an area on the western island of Palawan where Coral Bay Nickel Corp. is based. Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining owns a majority of the nickel processing company.
“I am not worried about it,” Takanori Fukimura, president of Coral Bay Nickel Corp., told Reuters.
The agreement also gives a government of the Bangsamoro homeland joint jurisdiction with the Philippine government over wide areas of the Sulu Sea where deposits of oil and gas are located.
Exxon Mobil, Union Fenosa
Exxon Mobil has a 50-percent participating interest in a service contract covering 860,000 hectares of the Sulu Sea.
Power group Union Fenosa Gas, jointly owned by Spain’s Utility Union Fenosa and Italy’s ENI, has an agreement to explore 1.3 million hectares of the Sulu Sea.
Both the MILF and the Philippine government have committed to agree on a final deal by November 2009, but deadlines have consistently been missed in over a decade of talks, punctuated by violent conflict.
The Moro people in Mindanao have been seeking some form of independence for over 40 years and over 120,000 people have been killed and 2 million people displaced in fighting.
