Maguindanao shines in BIMP-EAGA By ALI G. MACABALANG COTABATO CITY – Maguindanao has drawn attention at the recent Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asia Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) business meeting in Davao City, with its showcase of its potentials as well as gains amid man-made and natural calamities that stunted its growth for decades, officials revealed yesterday. Delegates from Maguindanao led by Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu described as “very delightful and fruitful” their representation to the Oct. 23-26 second BIMP-EAGA business conference, which for the first time was joined by potential investors from Thailand. “It was overwhelming,” Gov. Mangudadatu said, referring to the warm response by both foreign and Filipino delegates to the presentation of Maguindanao’s potentials and gradual growth from the stigmas of armed conflicts, frequent floods and other adversities that peaked in the infamous Nov. 23, 2009 massacre of 59 people including 32 media practitioners. Even former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, who graced the event as founding organizer of the BIMP-EAGA, approached the Maguindanao delegates and huddled with them cordially after their presentation of statistics on increased investments and improved socio-economic and political atmosphere in the province, according to the governor’s technical staff. Ramos initiated the BIMP-EAGA in 1993 to enhance trade cooperation among the four member-nations, in general, and to stimulate efforts for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to catch up in economic development, in specific, officials privy to the inception of the transnational polygon said. ARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan, all Muslim-dominated areas belonging to the cellar of development dimensions. Makmod Mending, Jr., ARMM’s agriculture secretary, and Gov. Mangudadatu said the four-day gathering provided the opportunity for the Muslim Filipinos to chronicle the viability now of investing in their provinces, particularly Maguindanao. The Maguindanao delegation showcased inaul (loom-woven) cloths, export grade Cavendish bananas, oil palm nuts, nutritious unrefined cane sugar, coffee beans, home decors and bags made of dried water lily stalks at the venue of the conference. “It was a good chance for us to show that the 36 towns in Maguindanao are now conducive for business projects and that we now have tranquility as a result of the Mindanao peace process,” Mangudadatu said. Mending said they also exhibited black organic rice, processed coffee, turmeric derivatives, organic bangus (milkfish) and red tilapias products from other provinces of the autonomous region. Maguindanao is a bastion of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the defiant Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). Since 2012, there has been no military-MILF encounter in the province, with only recalcitrant BIFF guerillas engaging government forces in pockets of armed skirmishes, police said. . Economic and Infrastructure investments, which had been withdrawn from Maguindanao as a result of the 2009 massacre, have started flowing back to the province in greater magnitudes since 2011, the ARMM’s Regional Board of Investments (RBOI) said in recent reports. For this year alone, the RBOI said, ARMM has posted almost P5-billion economic investments, about half of which went to Maguindanao. Local analysts attributed the growing investment trend in Maguindanao mainly to the MILF-government’s “favorable” peace process, and partly to the improing electoral system in the province that dawned with the end of local political tyranny through state sanction against the perpetrators of the infamous massacre. Retired Maj. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, who was deputized twice to head security arrangement for the 2010 and 2013 elections, once said: “After the massacre, Maguindanao electorate has regained privilege of electing their leaders in safe, fair and orderly processes.” (Ali G. Macabalang)
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 09:17:10 +0000
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