By Manny Piñol
The Mindanao Railway System, a P75-billion project which would connect by rail all food producing provinces of the country’s second biggest island, will become a reality under the Presidency of Rody Duterte.
In a town hall-type meeting with farmer-leaders of North Cotabato on Thursday, Vice Presidential candidate and incumbent senator Alan Peter Cayetano said that the 200-kilometer railway system will be a priority project under the Duterte presidency because of its importance in ensuring low-cost food for the nation.
“The Mindanao Railway System is a long delayed project. It has been studied and approved but no funds have been allocated for the project,” Cayetano told the farmer-leaders in Kidapawan City.
Cayetano said the delay in the implementation of the railway system is another proof of how a highly-centralised unitary government has neglected the development of the countryside.
“Compared to the MRT which costs P50-billion per line with the 7th line now under construction, the Mindanao Railway Project will only cost P75-billion,” Cayetano said.
Cayetano, whose vice presidential candidacy is being pushed by Duterte, said a railway system in Mindanao will have a huge impact on the supply of low-cost food to residents of Metro Manila and other big cities.
Responding to a concern raised by lacatan banana farmers who complained of the inadequate transport and shipping system which damage their products, Cayetano said the railway system will ensure efficient and low-cost transport of food commodities from agricultural areas like North Cotabato to the ports of Davao, General Santos City or Cagayan de Oro City.
“Landlocked agricultural areas like North Cotabato, Bukidnon, Agusan and Lanao del Sur with no access to ports or cargo-loading airports will greatly benefit from the Mindanao Railway System,” he said.
North Cotabato, a rice, corn and fruit producing province with a total land area of 656,000 hectares, is the country’s biggest producer of table bananas for the local market.
Farmers from the province, especially the town of Mlang, have started exporting organic rice to Europe and other countries.
It is also one of the biggest producers of raw and semi-processed rubber products and oil palm.
The agricultural production of the province, however, is affected by its lack of access to a wharf or an airport.
An airport which a 1.6-kilometer runway is being constructed in the town of M’lang but it is not operational yet.
Cayetano emphasised that the Mindanao Railway System will ensure the steady supply of low-cost food products to residents of the big cities.
“Sigurado wala nang kotong dyan sa check point kung may train na,” Cayetano, referring to the problems of cargo transport operators who are mulcted in police checkpoints along the route to the ports, said sending his enthusiastic crowd to a loud laughter.
Cayetano was in Kidapawan City Dec. 16 for the Federalism Forum staged by the Hugpong Pederal, a movement advocating a shift to a Federal system of government in the Philippines.
Before leaving for Davao City Thursday morning, Cayetano held a town hall-type consultative meeting with farmer-leaders of North Cotabato.
Cayetano later described his meeting with the farmers enlightening.
(Photos show Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano in a town hall meeting with farmer-leaders in North Cotabato Thursday.)
More Stories
Cotabato Eyes Huge ‘Halal’ Meat Demand
‘DV Savellano’ Model Bamboo Goat House
Practical Farming: Turn Used Plastic Containers Into Life-Time Laying Nests!