Building a Strong Mindanao! POVERTY, PRODUCTIVITY, PEACE: PRIORITY CONCERNS FOR MinDA

Mindanao is an island of paradoxes.

It is a rich and fertile land very seldom affected by climatic disturbances yet 8 of the 10 poorest provinces in the country are in Mindanao.

These islands are endowed with so much resources but productivity has been very low compared to its potentials.

This is the home of the Tri-People, all of whom declare peace as their ultimate dream and yet the development of the islands has been dragged down by decades of conflict.

Over the weekend, as I prepared for the new task given to me by President Rody Duterte, I reviewed the programs and accomplishments of the Mindanao Development Authority in relation to our dream of development these islands in the South.

The plans and programs are admirable with grand projects and ambitious targets

The Mindanao Railway Project, the Tawi-tawi Free Port, the implementation of the Trading Program among our partners in the BIMP-EAGA and the operationalisation of the Barter Trade are among the major programs lined up for implementation.

The questions which beg for answers are: Where are we now? How far have we gone in implementing these grandiose plans? What keeps us from realising these dreams?

Taking a closer look at the much-ballyhooed Davao-Bitung Trading to be served by a vessel capable of carrying cargoes back and forth which I understand is operating intermittently now, I realised what was absent in all of these grand plans.

We tried to build a huge dream on very weak foundations.

Before the launching of the Davao-Bitung Shipping Route attended by no less than President Duterte and President Joko Widodo of Indonesia two years ago, I do not believe that there was a careful study on the sustainability of the project. I suspect that there was simply no in-depth evaluation on whether there was sufficient products to be traded.

Taking the Davao-Bitung Shipping Route fiasco as an example of a poorly planned program, I now ask: If we build the Mindanao Railways, what goods would be transported to where?

Or, if we build the Tawi-tawi Free Port what do we offer our neighbours in the form of counter-trade; Or what goods do we barter in the Barter Trade Centre?

With these questions, I believe we should now realise that we can dream big but these dreams must be anchored on strong foundations.

So, today as we start a next chapter in the effort to lift up Mindanao and realise its full potentials, please allow me to take you back to the basic principle of building a house – let us build the posts first.

Let us go back to the basic.

First, we will start with a review of the composition of the Board of the Mindanao Development Authority, Political leaders abound in the Board, businessmen and members of the Academe, including Non-Government Oranizations, are well represented.

There is something lacking and that is the representation from the very people who share these dreams with everybody else in these islands – the Bangsamoro and the Indigenous People.

This is the reason why today, we see the presence of the traditional and tribal leaders of Mindanao in this gathering. We have to engage them for after all, they are the real stakeholders.

I am reminded of the story of the “Tower of Babel” in the Holy Book where people failed to build a tower simply because they spoke different languages and did not understand each other.

Do we want to build a strong and prosperous Mindanao? Then, we have to speak one language and we have to understand each other.

Second, we have to focus on three basic concerns which stand in the way of Mindanao’s development: Peace, Productivity and the very high Poverty Level.

After a long and agonising wait, President Duterte has finally forged an acceptable peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and has continued to reach out to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

How do we sustain this historical achievement?

Shortly after the signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law in Malacañang last year, I had the chance to shake hands and talk albeit briefly with former MILF Chairman and now Chief Minister Ahod “Murad” Ebrahim, Al Haj.

I congratulated him for his steadfast struggle to give his people the peace agreement that they desired. But at the same time, I also gave him a fair warning that the more difficult task of delivering what his people dreamed of during their struggle was the hardest part.

It is easy to wage a revolution. The difficult is to deliver the promise of a better life to people.

MinDA must now take an active role in ensuring that the gains of peace would be felt by the people of Mindanao today and the next generation.

As the new “Point Person” of President Duterte to the BARMM, I am happy to report to the people that before I left the Department of Agriculture, the Agriculture Master Plan for the Bangsamoro Region was crafted by the stakeholders themselves.

This proposed Agriculture Master Plan has been submitted to President Duterte and Chief Minister Ebrahim and ready for implementation.

Even before I could assume as the new MinDA Secretary, several foreign governments and at least two private groups have offered their support for the development of the Bangsamoro Region.

The governments of Italy and Turkey have manifested their interest to join me in Mindanao while an Israeli group is willing to provide funding for the establishment of Solar-Powered Irrigation Projects-cum-Rural Water Supply Systems in the remote villages of Mindanao.

The Dubai-based Russian company which earlier offered a fertilizer loaning program to the DA would now like to work directly with local government units.

From the lessons learned in the failed Davao-Bitung Shipping project, we all must exert efforts to increase productivity in Mindanao.

We must increase agricultural production and establish more fish cages, livestock and dairy, solar power irrigation and fertilizer loaning.

Two of the biggest concerns that I would like to address right away is the plummeting price of paddy rice produced by our farmers because of the entry of imported rice and the very low price of coconut products.

There is a huge market abroad for Mindanao’s premium rice in the neighboring southern nations, among which are Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Island Nations.

Next month, I will organise a trade mission to the PNG and the other island nations with the purpose of opening up markets, although small, for our products like premium rice, pork, chicken and vegetables.

For our coconut farmers, I have asked legal experts to study if the BARMM, given its vast autonomous powers, could pass a measure allowing the export of matured coconuts.

Initially, lawyers said it could be done so I intend to meet with Chief Minister Murad this week to work on the prospect of BARMM becoming the exporter of green and matured coconuts.

The big dream to develop Mindanao and encourage more investments will never come true if we have the needed infrastructure.

More roads leading to the production areas and fish ports must be constructed.

To sustain the expected fast-paced development, Mindanao must build more sustainable and renewable power generation facilities.

Most of all, we have to address the chronic poverty in the islands and come up with doable and practical programs and projects to address poverty.

Lanao del Sur, for example, is an enigma to me. How can a province so rich with resources have the highest poverty incidence in the country.

What about the 7 other provinces who are also in the ignominious club of the poorest provinces in the country? We need to know the reasons behind the high incidence of poverty in these areas.

Our target is to lift up these provinces so that at the end of my six year term as the MinDA Chairman, there will be no Mindanao province in the list of the poorest provinces of the country.

We will work closely with the local government units of Mindanao to achieve all these objectives.

We have six years to do all of these.

I am sure that if we get our acts together, we will succeed.

For so long, Mindanao has been known as the country’s Backdoor.

It should no longer be and it must not be.

We will no longer be the backdoor.

Mindanao will be the Front Cover of a new book on the story of a group of people who embraced peace, understanding and unity to build a prosperous homeland for themselves and their children.

(This was the edited message which I delivered yesterday on my assumption of the MinDA Chairmanship. Photos were taken by Fritz Flores, MinDA information officer.)