Manila Standard Today
A top Malaysian government official had offered 2 billion ringgits—about P27 billion—to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front for the right to search for oil in Mindanao, an official of the Nur Misuari faction of the rival Moro National Liberation Front said Sunday.
In a phone interview, Haj Gapul S. Hadjirul, the political director of the MNLF faction led by Nur Misuari, said Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak offered 10 billion ringgits to MILF Chairman Al Haj Haj Murad Ebrahim to accede to the Malaysian mineral exploration venture in Mindanao.
“Malaysia had offered 10 billion ringgits for the exploration of our oil basin at the Liguasan Marsh in Maguindanao, which the US supports,” Hajirul said.
Hadjirul, however, offered no specifics about the alleged deal, except to say that the government panel crafting the framework agreement together with Murad had a secret meeting with Najib in Malaysia days before the signing of the treaty.
But Hadjirul, quoting a confidential source from the MILF’s central committee member who had deserted to the MNLF, said he was surprised by Murad’s public disclosure of the deal.
Anticipating the Malaysian dole, “Murad convinced the central committee leadership to agree to the government’s offer because it will eventually benefit us,” Hadjirul said, quoting an unnamed source who was in the meeting when Murad announced it.
The Liguasan Marsh is around 200,000 hectares of dry and wet basins bounded by the Mindanao River in south-central Mindanao, North Cotabato and South Cotabato provinces. It is reported to be rich in oil and gas deposits, and is home to 112,000 Maguindanaon families whose primary means of livelihood is fishing.
The area is a vast complex of river channels, small freshwater lakes and ponds, extensive marches and arable land subject to seasonal flooding in the basin of the Mindanao River.
Most of the area is under water during periods of heavy rainfall, but some 140,000 hectares dry out during the dry periods and are cultivated.
The marshes are state-owned but the surrounding areas are privately owned. In 1979 30,000 hectares of the area were declared a Game Refuge and Bird Sanctuary.
Study has said that the marsh supports a great variety of aquatic wildlife, including 20 species of fish, three species of reptiles, and over 20 species of waterfowl, herons, egrets and ducks. The marsh is also one of the last strongholds of the Philippine Crocodile and the Estuarine Crocodile.
Former MNLF chairman Nur Misuari has said that some American experts had told him that the estimated earnings from the natural gas of Liguasan, once explored, was $580 billion.
Hajirual said that while Malaysia was banking on the MILF’s control of the marsh, “the desertion of thousands of MILF to the MNLF” had led to the MNLF’s control of six municipalities surrounding Liguasan Marsh.
The MNLF official added that the US had pushed Malaysia to the forefront of the deal to obscure its involvement in the enterprise.
The Malaysians, Hadjirul said, had enlisted US expertise, sending representatives to conduct soil tests and other studies in preparation for exploration.
“The US [experts] are now scattered in General Santos City, Jolo, Compostela Valley and Cotabato,Hadjirul said.
“They have a huge presence in Zamboanga City, which they use as their headquarters. But they are [highly] visible in Palawan.”
Misuari has said that, aside from oil exploration, Malaysia intends to convert the entire Liguasan Marsh into a palm oil plantation.
“That is their purpose behind the secret deal,” he said.
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