COTABATO CITY, Philippines – While technocrats supported the plan of President Benigno S. Aquino III to convert the water hyacinths into commercial products, a key leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) joined flooded residents in alleging that it is an added imposition on the local communities.

After viewing from the air the extent of flooding from the clogging of the Delta Bridge river-way here on Wednesday, President Aquino said the government would study long-term plans to control the growth of the water lilies, aside from just removing them from the river.

He said the aquatic plants may also be harvested on a commercial scale Datu’and turned into fiber or bio-fuel.

At a press conference following his brief stopovers along the clogged bridge and a refuge center for flood-displaced residents, Aquino said he would ask the interior and local government and science and technology departments to study the possibility of setting up a processing plant that can use water lilies as alternative energy source.

The suggested site of the plant is in the periphery of the Liguasan Marsh where water hyacinths grow and later cascade to the sea along the Pulangi (Rio Grande de Mindanao) and Tamontaka Rivers that cut across this city. The marsh borders Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.

As soon as reports on the proposal spread through the media, local officials and MILF Vice Chairmsn Gadzzali Jaafar alleged it is another imposition on the Muslim communities.

Jaafar claimed the proposal will serve Metro Manila businessmen who he tagged as business conglomerates responsible in past massive logging operations that left the marsh’s peripheral forests heavily denuded.

He said the “most needed” long-term solution to the perennial flooding is the reforestation of lands surrounding the marsh and along its river tributaries.

The Presidential Task Force on Mindanao River Basin has included proposals on the establishment of a water hyacinth processing plant and massive reforestation which they presented to President Aquino.