Cross-section economic cooperation in 8 new BARMM towns mulled

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Local executives and the Army’s 6th Infantry Division shall together harness the investment potentials of the 63 Bangsamoro barangays in Cotabato province that have just been grouped into eight municipalities via a plebiscite last Saturday.

Residents of the 63 Bangsamoro barangays in different towns in Cotabato, a component-province of Region 12, unanimously voted for the creation of the Pahamudin, Kadayangan, Nabalawag, Old Kaabacan, Kapalawan, Malidegao, Tugunan and Ligawasan towns under the Bangsamoro government.

Officials of the Commission on Elections, led by Chairman George Erwin Garcia, turned over on Monday to Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao the documents pertaining to the official results of the plebiscite, needed in the activation of the eight local government units to oversee the 63 barangays via enabling measures passed last year by the 80-member BARMM parliament.

“Imagine eight new local government units emerging soon to manage these 63 barangays that are suitable for large-scale agricultural and inland fishery projects. Our units there shall help capacitate these local government units via security interventions, Major Gen. Alex Rillera, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, told reporters here on Tuesday.

Rillera said the 6th ID is thankful to mayors of different towns in Cotabato where the 63 Bangsamoro barangays are located and to provincial officials for supporting the April 13 plebiscite security missions of the Army and the police.

“These 63 barangays are no longer under their jurisdiction but they were out there last Saturday helping ensure the safe conduct of that exercise,” Rillera said.

The merchant-politician Rolly Sacdalan, mayor of Midsayap, said the efforts of their mixed Muslim and Christian business community to entice investors to venture into viable businesses in the 13 Bangsamoro barangays in their municipality got a boost with the creation of the Kadayangan and Nabalawag municipalities covering the contiguous areas, all Moro domains.

“What else can we ask for? There shall exist two new local government units in these Bangsamoro barangays in Midsayap and my constituent Muslim and Christian merchants can work with both in terms of joint economic undertakings,” Sacdalan said.

Rillera said the 6th ID is also thankful to the Cotabato Provincial Peace and Order Council, chaired by Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza for having supported efforts to establish the eight towns in 63 barangays in her province via a democratic exercise.

Mendoza, who is chairperson of the Regional Development Council 12, said that she will convince traders in provinces covered by the multi-sector council to expand their operations in the eight newly-created Bangsamoro towns in support of the socio-economic goals of Malacañang’s peace overture with southern Moro communities.

“Economic empowerment is so important, so essential in promoting peace and sustainable development in areas covered by this peace process, now bouncing back from poverty and underdevelopment due to decades of secessionist conflicts,” Mendoza said.