Merchants see city seaport project as `economy booster’

COTABATO CITY -- Merchants are certain of an immediate upswing in Central Mindanao’s economy after the completion of an on-going multi-million seaport in the city.Cotabato City, which is inside Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is the envisioned capital of the proposed Bangsamoro government if the enabling bill for its creation, the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law, is approved by Congress and ratified via a plebiscite in selected areas in the country’s south.The seaport project in the west coast of Cotabato City, facing the Moro Gulf, is a flagship infrastructure thrust of Malacañang, being implemented jointly by the Department of Public Works and Highways and the office of Maguindanao First District Rep. Sandra Sema.The nearest seaport to Cotabato City is located in Barangay Polloc in Parang town in the first district of Maguindanao, about 18 kilometers away.Sema said the national government had initially allocated P90 million for the Cotabato City seaport, to be built near the scenic Timako Hill, a protected wildlife park.The road leading to the seaport, which straddles through fledgling peasant enclaves, is now being constructed out of an initial P38 million allocation from the national government.Bai Sandra Siang, president of the Kutawato Muslim Business Chamber, said they are expecting the pouring in of more capital inputs in Central Mindanao provinces by their contacts in other southern regions and abroad after the completion of the new Cotabato City seaport. This is the kind of infrastructure support the local business community needs to improve operations. When business climate is good, employment opportunities abound and the revenue collection of government will also improve,” Siang said.The thoroughfare that would link the seaport to Cotabato City and Maguindanao will also interconnect the city’s Kalanganan and Tamontaka Districts, home to ethnic Maguindanaon peasants and fisherfolks.Sema on Thursday inspected the road project to report its status to President Benigno Aquino III. We are thankful to President Aquino for these seaport and feeder road projects. This will boost the Mindanao peace process, which aims to restore normalcy in conflict-devastated areas through political and socio-economic interventions,” Sema said.A local merchant, Pete Marquez, who is a member of leading business groups in Central Mindanao, said the Cotabato City seaport will reduce the shipping expenditures of traders importing merchandise, which they sell to local markets, from Metro Manila and suppliers outside of the Philippines. There is peace when businesses are flourishing,” Marquez said.Marquez described as economy booster” the seaport project.