COTABATO CITY — The implementation of peacebuilding programs for the 63 Bangsamoro villages located within Cotabato province will be intensified to create a more business-friendly atmosphere for capital-intensive agricultural ventures, officials said on Thursday.
“Strong governance in these barangays is so essential in generating confidence of investors in the local business climate,” Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza said, following her meeting with the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade about helping decentralize basic services and see through the secure completion of on-going infrastructure projects in these Bangsamoro areas located in Region 12.
“Our business communities in the province (Cotabato), which are not under the Bangsamoro government, stand to benefit from that too,” she stressed.
Brig. Gen. Donald M. Gumiran, who heads the 602nd Infantry Brigade, said the governor’s thrust is in support of the efforts of the Bangsamoro Business Council and the Regional Board of Investments to entice foreign capitalists to invest in rich agricultural areas.
Mr. Gumiran said Thursday that the construction of more than a dozen barangay halls in Bangsamoro villages in Region 12 this past year is a testament to the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s cooperation with state agencies and neighboring local government units to look after the welfare of Moro rebels residing in beneficiary-areas outside of BARMM.
“They now feel the presence of government and investors from outside, in effect, also feel now that coming in to propagate short-term crops, or plant Cavendish bananas, or oil palm trees is viable,” Mr. Gumiran said.
Mayor Rolly C. Sacdalan of Midsayap, where there are Bangsamoro barangays, cited that the MILG-BARMM granted P83 million worth of farming equipment, including tractors, mechanized harvesters, rice and corn planters, to his Moro constituents last July to boost their rice and corn harvests that they sell to Christian traders in the town center.
“We support peace programs needed to sustain the cordiality among Muslim farming communities and the Christian merchants in town centers in Cotabato province,” Mr. Sacdalan said. — John Felix M. Unson
