GENERAL SANTOS CITY , Philippines – The Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with multinational oil firm Exxon Mobil Corp. to provide security to the company’s oil exploration in the Sulu Sea.
Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mohammad Dolorfino, Westmincom chief, said the MOU was signed on Thursday at Camp Basilio Navarro.
The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said that under the “unsigned and yet initialed” Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, the proposed expanded Bangsamoro state is entitled to a 75-25 sharing of government revenues in oil or gas production.
“The issue of wealth-sharing between the Philippine government and the future Bangsamoro state or sub-state is one of the outstanding issues in the current peace talks,” the MILF said in a statement.
In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that the agreement was unconstitutional.
Malacañang is still optimistic that a peace agreement with the MILF can be signed before President Arroyo’s term expires in June.
Many local chief executives of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, however, do not approve of expanded autonomy in the region.
“The MILF has both political and military presence in the island provinces of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan, but the military continues to play down our growing presence in these provinces, particularly in Basilan, for strategic and tactical reasons,” the MILF said.
Exxon Mobil, an American oil and gas corporation, is the world’s second largest publicly traded company with 30 oil refineries in 21 countries, which have a combined daily refining capacity of 6.3 million barrels. It corners three percent of daily oil production worldwide.