DAVAO CITY—Investments in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) reached P3.65 billion during the first six months of the year, despite the ongoing armed conflict in Marawi City.
Fear that investments in the region would go elsewhere because of the crisis in Marawi did not materialize.
Despite embracing the country’s poorest provinces under its wings, the ARMM still breached the P1-billion mark in investments in 2011 and did it again two years later.
“This is encouraging,” said lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman and managing head of the ARMM’s Regional Board of Investments (RBOI).
“Despite the Marawi crisis, the investment prospects of the ARMM continue to show signs of resilience and dynamism because the crisis area has effectively been contained by the government,” he added.
The ARMM RBOI said the first-semester figure “is higher by almost 74 percent compared with 2016’s total registration of P2.1 billion.”
The agency has so far registered three major projects this year, Mastura said, adding that the first project was the P32-million fish processing and cold storage project of Abing Seafoods and Cold Storage located in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi.
This project would address the needs of fisher families in the province “to process, store and preserve their seafood catch.”
The second project is the P33.5-million cargo-shipping project of J. Sayang Shipping Lines Inc., also based in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, for interisland trade and cross-border shipping with Sabah, Malaysia.
The third venture is the approved P3-billion telecommunications carrier project of TierOne Communications International Inc. (TierOne).
The company’s original plan was to start with a rollout program in Marawi City, but with the current crisis, TierOne reevaluated the plan.
“The Marawi rollout, according to company officials, will still be implemented, but in coordination with the rehabilitation and reconstruction program of the government,” Mastura said.
In the revised plan, the company will first roll out a pilot program by building facilities in the ARMM compound in Cotabato City that would serve the regional agencies. TierOne will eventually cover the entire region with its P3-billion investments, noting there remains a provision for expansion and infusion of additional capital as needed, Mastura added.
TierOne’s project will cover cellular service in 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE and broadband wireless Internet to homes and enterprises, as well as Wi-fi for public, or common, areas.
Mastura said he expects more investments coming in during the second half of the year.
“We expect banana-plantation investments in Maguindanao to continue with hundreds of millions of pesos worth to be registered this year with RBOI. There is a port-services project worth P100 million, a bulk-water treatment project worth around P200 million, and a cacao-plantation project that will pour in P1 billion, all of which will hopefully be registered this year,” he said.
RBOI provides fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to ARMM investors. In 2015 the agency registered a total of P6.5 billion, the biggest in ARMM’s history.
The ARMM surpassed the P1-billion mark in investment in 2011 with its P1.6-billion new ventures that year. Another billion-peso year in investments was posted in 2013, when investors poured in P1.4 billion, with half of it, or P700 million, going to nickel exploration in Tawi-Tawi; real estate in Bumbaran, Lanao del Sur (P365 million); in the expansion of a banana plantation; and an oil depot.
In 2015 the ARMM spent P100 million to improve the Polloc seaport in Maguindanao, turning it into a modern shipping port complex. The port repaired its docking area, constructed a new control tower and a warehouse complex backed by a proposed power-generation set.
Other infrastructure spending went to build free-port zones and access roads to tourism spots in Tawi-Tawi.
A favorable investment climate at the ARMM was largely triggered by the steady peace generated in many of its conflict-affected provinces, as peace initiatives by the government continued to hold with the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The ARMM received succeeding investments in new oil depots, mining, biomass-power generations, and agriculture-related ventures such as banana, palm-oil products and buckwheat plantations.