BARMM News
By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
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COTABATO CITY (SDN) — It’s been decades since the creation of the Polloc Freeport and Economic Zone (PFEZ). Business has been slow in coming, though.
Expectedly, the government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) led by Chief Minister Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim wants to speed up things.
On December 5, Ebrahim, chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), met at his office a ranking official of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA). Through its Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Deputy Director General Aleem Siddiqui Guiapal, PEZA has been assisting the BARMM on how to realize the potentials of PFEZ in attracting more locators and investments and, thus, generate more business, jobs, and economic benefits for the region.
Guiapal, in his presentation at the forum, showed why special economic zones are vital lifelines for the Bangsamoro region.
He said the Philippines has 419 ecozones, broken down into 299 IT Parks and Centers; 77 in Manufacturing; 23 Agro-Industrial Parks; 17 related to Tourism; and three focused on Medical Tourism.
PEZA’s ecozones, Guiapal said, from 1995-2021 generated Php4.036 billion investments, 1.7 million direct employment, and US$933.835 billion.
From January-September 2022, PEZA, Guiapal pointed out, lured Php39.631 billion investments, 148 projects, around 1.8 million direct jobs, and US$43.17 billion in exports.
Those figures, which may seem small compared to the performance of other countries’ ecozones, are numbers attractive to the Bangsamoro region.
The Chief Minister lauded PEZA for its willingness to help as he welcomed the partnership between the PEZA and the BARMM through the Bangsamoro Economic Zone Authority (BEZA) headed by OIC-Executive Director Atty. Sukarno A. Abas. BEZA is an agency under the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism (MTIT).
Established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the Bangsamoro region is composed of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as 63 North Cotabato barangays or villages. Eligible voters of the said villages voted “yes” in a plebiscite in January and February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction. SGA is collectively dubbed Special Geographic Area (SGA).
The BARMM population per the Philippine Atlas has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; the Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur.
Expansion of operations and more investors
“Speeding up” things (read: expansion of locators’ operations and luring more investors) is a primary reason the Bangsamoro government conducted on December 6, 2022, its 1st Multi-Stakeholders Forum on the Polloc Freeport and Economic Zone (PFEZ) Development here at the Al-Nor Convention Hall, not far from the Bangsamoro Government Center (BGC), seat of the regional governance.
An agency of the MTIT headed by Minister Abu Amri Taddik, BEZA conducted the forum, inviting the handful of PFEZ locators’, potential investors, and other stakeholders of the special ecozone that sorely needs attention to perk up business.
No wonder that when BARMM Senior Minister Abdulraof A. Macacua delivered the Keynote Address at the event, held on a bright sunny day (the kind of weather that residents truly welcome, what with Typhoon Paeng’s very recent devastation and deaths), he urged the locators/investors to expand their operation.
“I am encouraging all of you to expand further your operations and take advantage of all the investment opportunities in BARMM. We will remain open for business, and we want to continue working with excellent partners like you,” said Macacua.
The BARMM’s senior minister also spoke of attracting more investors to locate at the PFEZ.
“We, at the Office of the Chief Minister, through BEZA and our partner agencies will continue to do our best to attract investors and help our economy bounce back. This is in line with one of the 12-Point Priority Agenda of the present leadership on revenue generation,” he emphasized.
In his presentation at the event, Abas, mentioned the 12-Point Priority Agenda which the Chief Minister is pursuing.
They are, as Abas enumerated:
- Stronger BARMM Bureaucracy
- Digital Infrastructure & E-Governance
- Revenue Generation and Comparative Advantage
- Agri-Fishery Productivity and Food Security
- Investment in Transportation, Communication, and other Strategic Infrastructure
- Energy Sector
- Social Protection and Universal Healthcare
- Disaster Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation
- Quality and Holistic Education
- Support to Marawi Rehabilitation
- Peace, Justice and Security
- Bangsamoro Culture, Heritage and Diversity
Macacua cited BEZA’s vital role in transforming the Bangsamoro region as another of the country’s “prime destinations for investments, from promoting the competitiveness our region, to facilitating the operations of investors.”
Polloc Port creation comes full circle
In relation with this aspiration, the BARMM official assured regional government’s continuing actions in addressing the challenges region is facing as well as in taking advantage of opportunities to lure investors and business organizations’ interest.
“Our partnership has never been about short-term gain; it is about long-term relationships. We are rebuilding our great region brick by brick and paving the path too equitable progress and development.
“Invest in the Bangsamoro, invest in Polloc Freeport and Ecozone. The road to prosperity in BARMM is wide enough for anyone who would want to join. Let us all ride this momentum together,” said Macacua, as he congratulated BEZA for its dynamic and continuous effort in exercising its mandate despite a host of challenges.
Taddik, also at the forum, noted the BARMM government’s “current priorities,” such as “the growth of the economy, increased productivity, and post-pandemic recovery.”
The head of the MTIT told the forum attendees — investors and locators — the Bangsamoro region needs them, describing them as “our partners in this goal, to be fully involved and invested in the process.”
Taddik said the BARMM’s “ultimate goal is that with your support, our region’s economic growth story will continue even better in the future” to provide the Bangsamoro people jobs and a better life through investments the PFEZ will generate.
It can be noted the Polloc Freeport was established during the administration of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr. in 1980.
Now, 42 years later, it’s his son and namesake, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., who is leading the country.
And as history comes full circle, at least for BARMM, many in the Bangsamoro region who overwhelmingly voted for the son in the May 2022 presidential race, are hoping Marcos, Jr. would continue his father’s legacy, support the autonomous region rise from the destruction of decades of war. (✓)