P88.3 million sea, lake port projects in BARMM set

COTABATO CITY— Members of various business groups expressed elation over the Bangsamoro government's allocation of P88.3 million for the improvement of a seaport in Tawi-Tawi and the construction of five lake ports in Lanao del Sur.

Lawyer-entrepreneur Ronald Hallid Dimacisil Torres, chairperson of the Bangsamoro Business Council, and Mohammad Omar Pasigan, who oversees the Bangsamoro Board of Investments, separately told reporters on Sunday, December 22, that the port projects of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in the autonomous region will boost commerce and trade in Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur.

Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur are component provinces of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

“These projects will boost our efforts of showing to potential investors in other regions and abroad that we have these facilities that are essential to the socio-economic growth of the Bangsamoro region,” Torres said.

Minister Paisalin Pangandaman Tago of the MoTC-BARMM and representatives of four different construction companies forged in Cotabato City last Wednesday, December 18, separate contracts for the modernization of the main building and the passenger terminal in the Bongao Seaport in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi and the construction of the lake ports in lakeside towns in Lanao del Sur.

Lake Lanao is where thousands of ethnic Maranaos catch freshwater fishes everyday that they supply to markets in Lanao del Sur's 39 towns and in its capital, Marawi City.

Tago said the BARMM government has allocated P88.3 million for the projects.

“The lake ports that we are to construct will hasten the mobility of people who rely on Lake Lanao as a source of income,” Tago said.

The MoTC-BARMM has two agencies, the Bangsamoro Airport Authority and the Bangsamoro Ports Authority, that manage the airports and seaports in the autonomous region, both under the operational control of Tago, who is also a concurrent member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro regional parliament.