Manila: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) urged government to stop plans to bid out oil and natural gas contracts Bangsamoro areas until the issue on wealth sharing can be finalised.

In an article carried in its Luwaran website, the MILF called on the government to defer awarding oil and natural gas contracts in the Liguasan Marsh and Sulu Sea areas until the issue on wealth sharing between the government and the Bangsamoro can be finalised.

The government early this month signed the so-called “Framework Agreement” with the MILF. The agreement basically creates a new political entity, for the Moros that will be called the “Bangsamoro”.

President Benigno Aquino, in a speech announcing the framework pact on October 7, said one of the crucial features of the agreement was that the Bangsamoro will be given more equitable share in the resources in their claimed areas.

“The Filipinos of Bangsamoro… will be assured a fair and equitable share of taxation, revenues, and the fruits of national patrimony. They will enjoy equal protection of laws and access to impartial justice,” Aquino said.

During a press briefing on October 27 in Camp Darapanan in Maguindanao provinces’ Sultan Kuradat, MILF Chair Murad Ebrahim called on the government to settle the issue on wealth sharing first before proceeding with plans to bid out oil and natural gas contracts in proposed Bangsamoro areas.

“As a principle, we are not against exploitation of our natural resources including oil and gas provided that they redound to the benefits of our people and should be done in the proper time and conditions,” Muras was quoted as saying in a Luwaran interview.

The government and the MILF has given the political, wealth sharing and other aspects of the transition to the Bangsamoro from the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) until 2006 to implement.

To handle normalisation, both the government and MILF had agreed to form a technical working group (TWG) on normalisation, which is a very contentious issue because it includes policing, decommissioning of MILF combatants, and gradual redeployment of government forces to other areas in the country.

Based on the Department of Energy’s Petroleum and Energy Contracting Round 4 there are at least two areas, up for bidding in the proposed Bangsamoro: Area 11 in Cotabato, which is around 600,000 hectares, and Area 12, also in Cotabato, which is about 456,000 hectares.

These areas are rich in oil and natural gas. The resources in the basin are estimated to be 158 million bbl oil equivalents, including a discovered resource of 5 million bbl oil equivalent. The total number of wildcat wells drilled is 10.