Sectors in BARMM elated with ADB's support for 'blue economy' activities

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Members of the business community in the Bangsamoro region were elated with the reported commitment by the Asian Development Bank of a US$400 million grant for regional economic programs and the protection of fishing grounds in Mindanao’s territorial seas.

The entrepreneur-lawyer Ronald Hallid Dimacisil, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council, told reporters on Saturday that they learned about the ADB’s allocation of the huge amount for development initiatives from Bangsamoro Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua and other regional officials who were part of the entourage of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit and the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippine East Asian Growth Area conference in Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia early this week.

“We are thankful to the President for letting officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao join him in his official engagement in Malaysia. We are delighted with such a gesture by the Asian Development Bank for it will surely boost commerce and trade in the autonomous region and in other regions around,” Dimacisil said.

Macacua was accompanied to Malaysia by his chief-of-staff, Jamel Macacua, Ibrahim Lacua, who is managing one of BARMM’s humanitarian programs, a member of the regional parliament, Kitem Kadatuan Jr., and two officials of the Bangsamoro Board of Investments, its chairman Mohammad Pasigan, and a member of its board of governors, Habib Ambolodto.

“That support from the Asian Development Bank is intended for the improvement of the so-called `blue economy’ in Mindanao's seaside areas,” Macacua said.

The term blue economy means wise and sustainable utilization of obtainable marine wealth for economic growth that can, at the same time, generate livelihood and employment for marginalized communities, Pasigan explained.

Macacua ang Pasigan, who is BARMM's direct conduit to investors in regions around the autonomous region and abroad, had separately told reporters that the ADB’s US$400 million development package for programs meant to protect and ensure the sustainability of the marine fishing grounds around mainland Mindanao and in Palawan province, will improve more the investment climate in seaside areas in the autonomous region.

Macacua told reporters on Saturday that their involvement in the ASEAN Summit and the BIMP-EAGA conference in Kuala Lumpur early this week, along with the President, gave them the opportunity to connect with representatives of the political and business communities in different Southeast Asian countries.

“We ought to build connections with them continuously based on an imprimatur, or blessing, for us to do so from the charter of the Bangsamoro region, the Bangsamoro Organic Law,” Macacua said.

The government of Malaysia, a member-state of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which is a bloc of some 60 Muslim nations, including petroleum-exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa, helped broker the two peace compacts between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Malacañang, the 2012 Framework agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.

Both agreements paved the way for the replacement in 2019 of the then 27-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more empowered BARMM, which has agencies being managed together by officials of the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front. Both fronts have representatives in the region's 80-seat parliament too.

"We felt good with the cordiality extended to us by delegates from the countries that participated in the multinational events in Kuala Lumpur. We are certain that it will be easy for us to build linkages with the business communities in these countries,” Macacua said.

Macacua ang Pasigan, who is the regional government's conduit to investors in different regions in the country and abroad, separately told reporters that ADB's US$400 million development allocation for Mindanao will enhance the investment climate in seaside areas in BARMM.

“We in the Bangsamoro Business Council, which has members in all of the five provinces and three cities in the autonomous region, will support, help implement the programs to be funded out of that grant,” Dimacisil said.