Wetland An aerial view shows soldiers on boats navigating a section of Liguasan Marsh in the ongoing military operations against members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. AFP PHOTO President Rodrigo Duterte last Saturday night made it clear that the government will not be claiming the oil reserves said to be found beneath the Liguasan Marsh in Central Mindanao as they belong to the Bangsamoro people.

“There is much worry about the Liguasan Marsh. If there are trillions of cubic meters of oil, do not be worried at all. Hindi na kukunin ng gobyerno ‘yan. Inyo ‘yan. Walang makikialam (The government won’t take it. That is yours. Nobody will interfere),” Duterte said in his speech in Davao City during the celebration of Eid’l Fitr.

“I promise you — and that’s my commitment — it belongs to the Moro people. It will remain in your control and possession but you just have to pay the taxes and the services that the government would spend,” he added.

Liguasan Marsh is a 220,000-hectare marshland situated in the boundaries of Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

Locals and experts believe Liguasan Marsh holds a huge reservoir of natural gas worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and the Bangsamoro people could become one of the richest if this area is placed under their control.

Currently, elements of the 6th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines are conducting focused military operations against members of ISIS-inspired group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Liguasan Marsh.

So far, 16 BIFF rebels, including five Indonesians and a Singaporean, had been killed while a bomb manufacturing facility was destroyed during the continuing combat operations.

On the other hand, at least one soldier killed in the firefight.

Earlier, the military and communities around the vast Marsh had forged an alliance to fight abuses brought by the terrorist group.

Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion commander, said local residents who catch mudfish and catfish in the marshland were denied by BIFF of livelihood, prompting villagers to pinpoint the terrorists’ location to the military.

“The communities were obviously angered by armed BIFF men preventing freshwater fishermen to catch fish in marshland that led them to cooperate with us,” Cabunoc said.

He added the bandits had made life difficult for fishermen the past several years and got fed up, encouraging them to report the location of a bomb-making factory of the BIFF in the border of Pagalungan and Gen. Salipada K. Pendatun towns.

Cabunoc said Army ground troops, cruising on motorized bancas, continue to hunt down BIFF remnants.

“Our orders are to finish the BIFF for good,” he said.