From strife-torn communities to economic growth engines

MATANOG, Maguindanao – For years, peace and development eluded residents of Sitio Sarmiento in Matanog, Maguindanao Province, Mindanao. Located at the entrance of what was once known as Camp Abubakar, the site of intermittent clashes between Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) guerrillas and government troops, fleeing at the burst of a gunshot was the key to survival.

"It was very difficult then. We could harvest our corn but we couldn’t work our rice paddy and sell our produce because our buffalo had disappeared," says Bunga Baliok, a woman whose family spent more than a year in evacuation centers due to the sporadic armed conflicts undermining the stability of her community in the late 1990s.

Residents saw a glimmer of hope after the government took over Camp Abubakar in 2000. But they found it hard to move forward. Trading was limited, as the makeshift wooden bridge connecting Matanog to key markets could not support heavy loads. Farmers were unable to maximize productivity, owing to difficulties in accessing agrochemical input providers. Children chose to stay at home rather than go to school across the dangerous bridge.

These days are gone and the dilapidated wooden structure has been displaced by the concrete Sitio Sarmiento Bridge, which was built by the US Agency for International Developments (USAID) Medium Scale Infrastructure Program (MSIP). MSIP is a component of USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program which operates throughout conflict-affected areas of Mindanao (CAAM).

The concrete structure replaces the decades-old, wooden Otong Bridge and now allows trucks and motorcycles to transport farm produce from the poor upland villagers of northern Maguindanao. "Noon, fifty centavos isang sako sa kabayo. Hindi man kami magbayad sa kabayo. Lakad na lang kami. (It costs 50 centavos per sack of corn if we hire a horse. We don’t take the horse. We just walk)," says 76-year-old farmer Eta Toleno.

After the bridge was completed, transporting harvests by truck cost only 10 centavos per sack. Now, farmers like Eta can sell their coconut, corn, rice, abaca, fruits and vegetable harvests to markets in Parang, Maguindanao or to Cotabato City, which is about 40 kilometers, or roughly an hour’s drive from Matanog.

Linking farms to markets

Economic activities in the village of Matilac, a former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) base, have also increased because GEM rehabilitated its 800 meter farm-to-market road. The old earth road had deteriorated so badly that it was no longer passable by wheeled vehicles.

The road now has an all-weather surface and drainage structures, allowing Matilac’s farmers and fisherfolk from Liguasan Marsh to transport their products faster and more cheaply to markets in Pigkawayan, North Cotabato, the nearest trading center. Fish trader Suad Tuyar says she saves at least P100 a day because her fish, from the drop-off point in Matilac, now go directly to Pigkawayan. With the road improvements, the trip to Pigkawayan takes only 30 minutes.

Now, roughly P150,000 worth of various fish species – twice the value of the daily volume prior to the road’s rehabilitation – are transported from the village to Pigkawayan and Cotabato City. At least 30 motorcycles and trucks ply the farm-to-market route from Matilac to Pigkawayan, as they have done since the project was completed in August 2004.

Housewife turned entrepreneur

For years, Nida Turo, a 32-year-old widow, and one of the fish traders of Tunggol, endured the debilitating heat of the sun from which her open-air venue offered no respite. Though referred to as a "boat landing" Tunggol was, in fact, merely a location at which the local boats docked, and offered no amenities to those whose economic lives depended on the facility.

Two years after GEM completed the P1.3 million Tunggol boat landing in Datu Montawal, Maguindanao, the municipality has flourished, as have Nida Turo and her colleagues. Located near the resource-rich Liguasan Marsh, Tunggol has become the area’s new aquaculture hub and lures fish buyers from as far as Carmen municipality in North Cotabato, which is 30 kilometers away. Since its construction, the fresh water fish harvest has increased by 50 percent. Every day, at least 30 boats cruise the Rio Grande De Mindanao to transport goods and passengers to and from Tunggol. – GEM Program