Cotabato tourism to get boost from riverside project

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Villagers are optimistic the completion of a riverbank anti-erosion infrastructure along the historic Tamontaka River would boost the tourism climate in their riverside enclaves.

The ongoing construction of the P40 million worth protective wall of the eastern bank of the Tamontaka River is being bankrolled by the office of Maguindanao First District Rep. Sandra Sema, whose jurisdiction also covers all of the 37 barangays in Cotabato City.

The revetment structure can be seen from the Tamontaka bridge, which connects Cotabato City to Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao, where the adjoining provincial airport and the Army’s Camp Siongco are located.

“People from the city and Datu Odin Sinsuat area can come to the protected side of the river and while away time there once the project has been completed. This project will generate for us livelihood opportunities,” said 45-year-old Salik Kamsa, an entrepreneur.

Kamsa is a vendor of indigenous roofing materials made of palms harvested from wild nipa palm trees thriving along marshes in the upstream of the Tamontaka River.

Sema earlier said the project was designed to prevent the scouring of the eastern bank of the river, and to prevent the waterway from overflowing into riverside villages during the rainy days.

She said one spot on the surface of the initial 316-meter river wall can be utilized as a potential trading spot, where fishermen can sell freshwater fishes, such as mudfish, catfish, carps and tilapia that are abundant in the upper delta separating Cotabato City and Maguindanao.

The Tamontaka River has been, for centuries now, a major shipping route for ethnic Maguindanaons that dwell along its banks and marshes that connect to the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta at the tri-boundary of Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.  

A multi-million mosque, built as a gift for Cotabato City by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, now stands, as a landmark, along the downstream channel of Tamontaka River at the city’s western coast. The worship site, built about four years ago, is now a major tourist attraction.