National agency, BARMM unite to upgrade Cotabato Airport

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Bangsamoro transportation and communications ministry and the national government’s Office for Transportation Security are together now in programs meant to modernize the Cotabato Airport.

The initiative is in support of multi-sector efforts to boost commerce and trade in cities and provinces around the Cotabato Airport, senior officials of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said on Sunday.

The Cotabato Airport in Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte is only about eight kilometers from Cotabato City, where BARMM’s regional capitol is located.

MoTC-BARMM’s minister, Paisalin Pangandaman Tago, told reporters here on Sunday that senior officials of different divisions and bureaus under him and OTS Director IV Rodelio Jocson met here last week and set partnership parameters in imposing stringent protection protocols in operating the Cotabato Airport, based on Philippine and international civil aviation standards.

Jocson is a senior official in the Transport Security Accreditation and Training Management Service of the OTS. 

“The dialogue, attended by officials of the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority, was fruitful and we are to do more engagements soon needed to achieve that goal. We are thankful to the OTS for this partnership,” Tago said.

A retired police general, Jocson of the OTS is no stranger to the Bangsamoro region, having served as police director of the still undivided Maguindanao province while a colonel yet, and, subsequently, as a senior directorate staff of what is now the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, originally known then as PRO-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Jocson said the OTS, which is under the Department of Transportation, is committed to help the office of Tago make the Cotabato Airport become at par with more modern airports in Mindanao.

“Improving this airport is essential to the Mindanao peace process and to the economic growth of Cotabato City and the nearby municipalities in the second district of Lanao del Sur, in Maguindanao del Norte and in Maguindanao del Sur,” Jocson said.

Jocson said it is easy for the OTS and the MoTC-BARMM to implement tie-up programs owing to the markedly efficient cooperation among agencies of the ministry and the office in the Cotabato Airport of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

Functions and powers of the CAAP are not devolved to the Bangsamoro government.