COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Bangsamoro parliament has approved a proposal to move the regional capitol to Parang, Maguindanao del Norte from Cotabato City, a move that business groups had lobbied for.
The information office of the 80-seat Bangsamoro Transition Authority, also known as the Bangsamoro interim parliament, announced Tuesday that BTA Bill 43, the enabling measure for the transfer of the regional capitol had been approved on third and final reading in a session late Monday.
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"We welcome the approval of that enabling measure with gladness. Transferring the seat of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to Parang is like opening a new investment corridor for regional and foreign investors," lawyer-entrepreneur Ronald Hallid Dimacisil Torres, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council, said Tuesday.
Historic Parang town was founded as a Spanish enclave in the 16th century and is the center of commerce and trade for the adjoining Iranun-dominated Buldon, Barira and Matanog towns in what is now Maguindanao del Norte and the municipality of Kapatagan in Lanao del Sur.
“Learning that the BTA Bill 43 had been approved is like music to our ears,” Mohammad Omar Pasigan, chairman of the Bangsamoro Regional Board of Investments, told reporters in an online exchange on Tuesday.
Pasigan said Parang is surrounded by towns that have vast swathes of arable land suitable for orchard farms, Cavendish banana, soya and corn plantations.
The largest seaport in the entire BARMM is located in Parang, which has a sizable population of residents of Cebuano and Ilonggo descent.
The town once had fuel depots along its coastlines owned by different petroleum companies, but these closed down in the early 1990s due to security issues.
Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Abdulrauf Macacua said the expected expansion of the businesses of wealthy traders in Cotabato City to Parang will generate employment for local residents.
“Providing our people with employment, as part of the BARMM government’s socio-economic agenda, is parallel with the socio-economic objectives of the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front,” Macacua said.
Macacua is a senior official of the MILF, whose peace talks with Malacañang that lasted for two decades resulted in the replacement of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more politically and administratively-empowered BARMM.
Cotabato City was not part of the ARMM but was included in the new administrative region despite a city campaign against the plebiscite to ratify creation of the BARMM.