PHL to remain US ally in keeping peace in Asia, Marcos tells Biden By Samuel P. Medenilla
P
RESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. gave assurances the Philippines will remain an ally of the United States in maintaining peace in Asia. Marcos made the commitment during his meeting with US President Joe Biden last Thursday. “We continue to look to the United States for that continuing partnership and the maintenance of peace in our region, in terms of the geopolitical issues that we face in this day and age,” Marcos said.
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The President also thanked the US for its continued support to the Philippines especially during the pandemic when it donated almost 36 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the Philippines. He said he hopes the strong partnership between the country and the US will continue despite the “complexities that have arisen in the past few months.” Marcos’s predecessor, former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, issued anti-US statements during his term especially after some American lawmakers called
him out for the mounting fatalities in the government campaign against illegal drugs at that time. He also announced the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries, but later recalled the decision. During his administration, Marcos said he intends to continue the country’s over a century old bilateral relationship with the US. The two allies have a Mutual Defense Treaty which has undergone review the past several years. Related story on A4
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. meets with US President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in New York last Thursday. The two leaders reflected on the importance of the Philippines-US alliance. TROI SANTOS
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IN THE WILDERNESS By Manuel T. Cayon
D
AVAO CITY—The Bangsamoro region—that’s the autonomous region for Filipino-Muslims in Mindanao— capped a transition year of governance with P6.9 billion in fresh investments, a significant feat for a region struggling with a rather unsavory reputation of violence and bloodshed.
With a few remaining months before 2022 ends, the regional Bangsamoro Board of Investments (RBOI-BARMM) reported the updates, investment performance and milestones in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) for the first three years after its inauguration on March 29, 2019. “For three years—more than two years of which are under pandemic—local investors [have been] boosting the economy with P6.9 billion worth of investments in the region: P4.1 billion in 2019, P114 million in 2020, P2.8 billion in 2021 and P47.41 million for the first semester of 2022,” the RBOI said. These investment years generated jobs for at least 5,704 workers, it added. Comparing the data, it said the investment approvals of RBOI were at their peak in the first year and suddenly plummeted in the second year due to the pandemic. The region’s largest industry investor was the banana industry, and agriculture as a whole, with P4.5 billion, or 65.13 percent of total investments. Sand and gravel operation was next with P1.4 billion, indicating the robust construction sector sprouting in some parts of the region, and showing that investors’ confidence could come aplenty with a dedicated resolve for good governance. Some P14 million went to install community Internet service, and a bigger single investment of P998 million was allocated for oil extraction and gas exploration. Another big-ticket investment of P398 million went to improve tourism facilities, including accommodation, and P100 million more
BARMM Areas Lanao del Sur Maguindanao Basilan Sulu Tawi-Tawi
BARMM’s 3-year transition caps P6.9B in fresh investments
project,” said lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman of the RBOI-BARMM. He said the investor is establishing its operation in the municipality of Datu Abdullah Sangki and other adjacent municipalities in Maguindanao, with a combined area of 1,000 hectares. The RBOI said in a news statement the investments worth P950 million “are supposed to generate an annual production of 2,000,000 to 3,300,000 boxes of Cavendish bananas for export to Japan, China and the Middle East.” The investment project will create jobs for 1,190 workers, it added. The registration of the investment project of Amavi with the RBOI-BARMM “entitles them to a six-year income-tax holiday, reduced duties for importation of capital equipment, exemption from wharfage dues and additional deductions for labor expenses,” it added. Mastura said the approval of the registration of Amavi’s investment project “would help revive the banana industry, which has been on a declining trend due to several factors.” “While the bulk of the banana industry is located in the Davao
Region, some of those areas have been hit by the Fusarium Wilt or Panama Disease that made these unsuitable for banana planting. Thus, the BARMM is considered a prospective area for investments in planting of Cavendish bananas for export that could help revive our banana industry in terms of volume and market share in the world market,” Mastura added. The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association said banana planters were spread in 16 provinces in Mindanao, but they were hounded by the spreading Panama Disease. While banana continued to be in great demand in the world market, Mindanao plantations have been severely affected by the disease, such that in the years 2014 and 2015 hectarage declined by 2,163.24, prompting plantation owners to seek lands elsewhere in the Davao Region. The RBOI last year also cited a March 12 Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report that said fresh bananas recorded “the worst dip among the top 10 major commodity groups in terms of the value of exports at -46.9 percent as of January 2021.” PSA data show that the Continued on A2
VIEW from the Grand Mosque of Cotabato, officially the Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mosque, in Barangay Kalanganan II, Cotabato City, BARMM’s regional center. The mosque is the third largest in Southeast Asia after the Istiqlal Mosque of Indonesia and the Marawi Grand Mosque. JAOUEICHI | DREAMSTIME.COM
was invested in a hotel and restaurant business. Some P49 million was spent for Halal certification, a key investment area to cater to prime assurance to Muslims that their food and other basic items were sold according to Islamic protocols on hygiene and food preparation.
Agriculture
AGRICULTURE topped the investment profile in a region whose lands have been highly untapped
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 58.4060
due to agrarian conflict and decades of armed fighting between government and Moro guerrillas. When land cultivation was made possible following the signing of a final peace settlement with armed groups, corporate agricultural companies also journeyed to the fertile lands lying idle. The expansion lands for banana cultivation, for example, had long been planned, mainly to evade the rampaging spread of the dreaded Fusarium Wilt, popularly
known as the Panama Disease. But last year, the RBOIBARMM said local investor Al Muzafar Agriventure Inc., also known as Amavi Sweet Banana, registered its proposed P950-million investment to establish in Maguindanao a plantation of the exportable Cavendish banana. “Despite the higher risks for investments due to the Covid-19 pandemic woes of the country and the region, as local BARMM investors, they still proceeded with the
n JAPAN 0.4104 n UK 65.7418 n HK 7.4413 n CHINA 8.2506 n SINGAPORE 41.1861 n AUSTRALIA 38.7933 n EU 57.4657 n KOREA 0.0415 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.5273
Source: BSP (September 23, 2022)