Convert Liguasan Marsh into a peace zone, Cotabato folk urge

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao — Various sectors are in favor of converting the Liguasan Marsh into a peace zone for investors to come in and peacefully explore its reported oil and gas deposits.

This, as North Cotabato’s Pikit town, its known gateway, had been cleared of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas.

Local officials are convinced that harnessing the potentials of the 223,000 hectare delta, bounded by the North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces, would complement Malacañang’s Mindanao peace process, which is focused on developing impoverished Muslim communities.

"If the native inhabitants of the Liguasan Marsh would have peace and sustainable development in their midst by making use of the area’s natural wealth, they themselves will deny sanctuary to lawless elements in their swampy communities," said North Cotabato Gov. Emmanuel Piñol.

Piñol’s office has long been studying how specialized firms could validate previous findings by different research entities that the marsh has vast deposits of natural gas and oil, which, if tapped, could supposedly supply even half of Southeast Asia’s fuel requirements.

From 1995 to 1997, the Philippine National Oil Corp. (PNOC) and Petronas Charigali, a Malaysian firm, explored for oil and gas in Maguindanao’s Sultan sa Barongis town, which is within the so-called "Liguasan Basin."

Although the joint exploration venture yielded "reassuring results," workers of the two companies came under constant harassments from suspected MILF rebels.

In early 1997, some 40 PNOC workers were harassed while surveying the topography of the Pikit-Sultan sa Barongis border, sparking hostilities that subsequently forced the suspension of researches in the area.

In several barangays in Pikit, Pagalungan and Sultan sa Barongis, Muslim residents would relate of how they drilled artesian wells, but ended up getting "strong-smelling" combustible gas leaking out of their pipes.

For centuries, Muslims at the boundary of North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat have survived on the bounties of the Liguasan Marsh, a vast bird and fish sanctuary.

Members of Central Mindanao’s Muslim community said rebel forces in the area are opposed to projects that provide jobs and income to Liguasan’s fisherfolk, fearing that progress in the area would also put an end to the guerrillas’ taxation activities.

"They are also against the development of the marsh into a progressive, economically viable area because they would lose a good place to hide kidnap victims," said a senior Army intelligence officer, who asked not to be identified.

So rich is the marsh that villagers in some areas that get drained during summer can propagate nine-feet tall corn crops and produce bumper harvests without using fertilizers.

Engineer Norie Unas, provincial administrator of Maguindanao, said once harnessed, the vast Liguasan Marsh can be Central Mindanao’s food basket.

"That is for possible agricultural ventures alone. What if there are, indeed, big deposits of oil and natural gas in the marsh?" Unas told The STAR.

At least eight towns in Maguindanao are within the Liguasan Basin.

Most peace advocates in the region have persistently been asserting that poverty and underdevelopment are the two main causes of the separatist insurgency in Central Mindanao.