Pineapple packing plant seen to help grow peace, prosperity in Lanao del Sur

LANAO DEL SUR, Philippines — A P306-million pineapple packing plant facility can help Lanao del Sur province recover from conflicts started by the Maute terrorist group, officials said Tuesday.

The setting up of the facility in Wao town in the first district of Lanao del Sur is a tie-up between the Wao Development Corporation, or WDC, and multinational fruit company Dole Philippines.

"This can disprove notions that it is unsafe for investors to come in and put up capital-intensive businesses in our province," Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. said Tuesday.

Lanao del Sur has been struggling to recover from attacks by the Islamic State-inspired Maute terrorists in isolated towns and in its capital, Marawi City, between 2015 to 2018.

Hexsan Mabang of the Regional Board of Investments-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said the BARMM government issued last month the registration document for the pineapple processing plant in Wao.

“We are confident other investors will realize it is safe now to put up businesses in Lanao del Sur. The Bangsamoro government is ready to assist and guide them through,” Mabang said.

Pineapples for export to Singapore

Mabang said the pineapple packing plant will employ an initial 753 workers.

He said its operator will export all of its products to Singapore through the DOLE Asia Holdings.

Adiong said the provincial government will help maintain the tranquility in Wao to ensure the undisrupted operation of the packing plant that will employ hundreds of local residents and generate revenues for the local government.

The project's registration was approved by BARMM just as Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana of the Western Mindanao Command said last month that the security situation in Lanao del Sur and in Marawi City has improved due to continued operations against local terrorists.

Sobejana said peace has also been spreading around Lanao del Sur’s upland Butig town, the birthplace of the Maute group.

The religious adventurism of the group sparked the May 23 to August 16 conflict in nearby Marawi City that resulted in the deaths of more than a thousand, among them soldiers and policemen, displaced no fewer than 300,000 innocent people and ruined dozens of centuries-old Maranao dwelling enclaves.

Sobejana said Tuesday the multimillion-peso investment in the pineapple packing plant in Wao shows that investors are confident in the situtation in the province.

"They will not come and pour in capital if they feel that spending huge amounts of money for certain projects is unsafe," Sobejana said.