Press Release
November 11, 2009

ANGARA URGES SENATE: ENACT DEV'T BODY FOR MINDANAO

Senator Edgardo J. Angara yesterday urged Congress to institute a governing body for the further socio-economic progress in Mindanao, creating the economic development authority to tap its vast human and natural resources collectively as one whole region.

Angara emphasized in his sponsorship speech at the Senate yesterday, "We are yet to realize the goals we set for the development of Mindanao 50 years ago. It is lamentable that during the past administrations, the focus of development in Mindanao had been on political and economic aspects of Mindanao's potentials in nation building--more on what it can offer and less than what its people can get. Every time a Mindanao mechanism is created, it is either subsumed or worse, abolished when there is change in national leadership. Hence, there is no coherence, consistency and continuity of development efforts."

The Mindanao Economic Development Act of 2009 aims to harness the region's potentials, the country's second largest mainland space, for industrial development and make it a hub for economic and trade activities with East-Asian neighbors. "The abject neglect, discrimination and ambivalence by the past government is perfectly illustrated by one simple fact: for the past 97 years, there has been no permanent mechanism that looks after the affairs of Mindanao," said Angara.

From the last figures of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), Mindanao is still the poorest of the three island groups in the country. It registered the highest poverty and subsistence incidence among the country's major island groups. Mindanao's poverty incidence reached 38.8% compared to lower poverty incidence rates in Luzon (20%) and the Visayas (33%).

"What we have are patchwork agencies. Starting from 1899 to 1996, there were about 18 ad-hoc bodies that were created to oversee Mindanao, which, among others, include: the Military District of Mindanao and Jolo, Military Department of Mindanao and Jolo (MDMJ), Bureau of Non-Christian Tribe, Department of Mindanao, Department of Mindanao and Sulu, Office of the Commissioner for Mindanao and Sulu, and Mindanao Development Authority (MDA). Why were so many agencies created over and over? Within the maze of bureaucracy that the years have spawned, why is there no discernible effort to systematize, coordinate and unify governmental efforts in a permanent entity?" pointed Angara, Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance.

He also noted, "Mindanao has long endured a reputation of merely being supplier of food and raw materials to factories in Cebu and Manila. In addition, the way the local and international media are feeding exaggeratedly on stories of war and terrorism in Mindanao worsen the image of the region and harms the potentials for local and foreign investment."

Angara clarified that the creation of this development authority does not emasculate autonomy of local governments in Mindanao. He believes that countryside development is meaningless without its local government units exercising genuine and full autonomy. Simply stated, he emphasized, the present over-centralization of the bureaucracy in Manila must be dismantled, and full and unconditional autonomy must be granted to all its government units at once. ARMM's autonomy will not also be affected. Rather, MEDA will ensure that ARMM will always be in the loop of Mindanao's development.

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