The Moro Islamic Liberation Front refused to say what they would do if the government ignored their request.

The Department of Energy recently invited foreign and local companies to invest in oil-and-gas explorations in 12 offshore and three onshore areas that include the vast Sulu Sea and Palawan, which cover regions the rebels want to control. The Philippines imports most of its oil and gas.

The rebels called on prospective foreign companies not to take part in the energy explorations, which they say would deprive the country’s minority Muslims of natural resources. They also said they have lost land and opportunities in decades of massive land grabbing by settlers.

They also oppose the planned sale of two state-run hydropower plants in areas that the rebels are claiming.

“The Philippines has become one huge corporation, there are vested interests everywhere,” rebel chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal told The Associated Press. “We’re at the mercy of foreign companies.”

Government negotiator Marvic Leonen said no accord with the Muslim rebels prohibits the government from pursuing development efforts, adding that economic projects were meant to ease the plight of impoverished Filipinos, including Muslims in the south.

The Muslim rebels’ opposition to energy explorations is similar to a campaign by communist New People’s Army guerrillas to stop mostly foreign mining companies’ operations in Mindanao, where they have destroyed heavy equipment and threatened mining personnel.

Iqbal refused to say if Muslim rebels would eventually resort to attacks against exploration companies, saying they would first exhaust all “diplomatic means.”

“We don’t want to go into that at this point,” Iqbal said.

(AP)