MILF asks gov’t to freeze gas, oil bidding contracts in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has asked the Philippine government to freeze all gas and oil bidding contracts in areas claimed by the Moro people as their ancestral domain.

Mohaqher Iqbal, MILF chief negotiator, said in a statement that he had forwarded to his counterpart in the government, Marvic Leonen, the MILF position on the ongoing bidding by the Department of Energy on oil and gas exploration in Sulu and other areas claimed by Muslims as its ancestral domain.

He said the Moro people would get nothing if the bidding continued, without settling the issue on ancestral domain claims.

The MILF is pushing for the establishment of a sub-state in areas dominated by Muslims with all the rights to benefit from the natural resources, including gas and oil.

Among the areas the MILF wants to have control over is the Liguasan marshland in Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

Iqbal said the exploration of the gas and oil reserves in Muslim Mindanao without settling the ownership issue first would be adverse to the interests of our people. “I hope the government will consider our request in the interest of majority of our people,” he said.

The MILF appeal came after the Department of Energy (DoE) extended the bidding deadline for the oil and gas blocks it offered to investors under the Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR).

Jay Layug, DoE undersecretary, said that the department moved the January 31 pre-qualification deadline for those interested to vie for petroleum blocks to February 29 to give interested parties more time to prepare their bids.

“Pre-qualification is a new feature of the DoE guideline and must be undertaken before the bid submission—the extension allows bidders to have more time to prepare legal documents,” he said.

He explained that the government also engaged the services of four seismic survey companies for “new seismic data to be shot or reprocessed over some areas for more in-depth evaluation and bid preparation.

In August 2011, the MILF, through its peace panel, formally put in the agenda of the talks the issue of the gas and oil explorations in Moro ancestral domain.

The DoE has focused on resources development as a long-term plan of action in the hope of finding indigenous oil and gas resources to reduce its dependence on imported petroleum and mitigate the effects of oil price volatility.

To realize its energy program, the government has entered into contract with foreign companies to explore and develop highly prospective oil and gas in untapped Muslim areas.

Early this year, the government entered into contract with Australian firm Otto Energy Ltd.  to work for an oil exploration in the Sulu Seas.

In 2011 the government also entered into a contract with US-based Exxon Mobile Company to develop an oil exploration in the Tawi-Tawi straits.

Residents in the provinces of Tawi-Tawi and Sulu saw these activities as flagrant violations of the Bangsamoro rights to explore and manage their own natural resources.

The MILF said that since 1946, when Philippine acquired its independence from United States, the government had continually usurped the Moro rights by exploiting the natural resources in Moro areas without the benefit and consent of the Moro people in Mindanao and Sulu.