CONSISTENT government support that will create jobs and livelihood opportunities in areas of conflict can go a long way in preserving peace and order in Mindanao, according to vice presidential aspirant Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan.
He said reversing the perception of years of regret will not happen overnight as he praised officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) for having attained great strides at stabilizing Basilan and other restive areas.
Pangilinan and opposition presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo crossed the Basilan Strait from Zamboanga Peninsula Wednesday evening to meet some 40,000 supporters in the island province.
“The only workable solution to the peace and order problem is creating development, which requires full support for BARMM so that the commitments made during the peace negotiations are met,” he said in Filipino.
Pangilinan held up the experience of La Frutera banana plantation in Maguindanao as an example of an initiative that can be a blueprint for future to convince armed groups in Mindanao to come to talk peace. He said the 2,000-hectare plantation where farmers earn decent incomes from leasing their land and being engaged as contract growers has not seen any fighting.
Pangilinan said the brief visit and tour of Basilan offered him a glimpse of its potential as a contributor to food security.
“Basilan can be huge. Yung seafood lamang dito kulang ang post-harvest facility. Pagka mayroong mga solar cold-storage facilities, eh talagang dadami ang ani at huli ng mga isda at mas magiging available. Tataas ang kita ng ating mga mangingisda dito. The economy will boom if we do interventions in fishing and of course in agriculture (The seafood caught here … the absence of post-harvest facilities. If we can provide solar cold-storage facilities, the fishermen can store their catch and expand their market. They will earn better. There is a potential to spark an economic boom if we intervene in fishing and agriculture),” he said.
