Central Mindanao-Basilan shipping route opened

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Merchants in Basilan and Maguindanao del Norte were elated with the government’s having established a shipping route connecting both provinces, for them essential to the economic growth of the two areas.

Ronald Halid Dimacisil Torres, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council, said Saturday they are grateful to the Ministry of Transportation and Communication-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for setting up the Basilan-Maguindanao del Norte sea route.

The council has members in the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Cotabato, Marawi and Lamitan, all inside BARMM’s core territory,

Senior public officials, among them Regional Minister Paisalin Tago of MOTC, Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Abdulrauf Macacua and officials of BARMM’s Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) launched this week the maiden voyage of the roll-on, roll off vessel M/V Island Paradise from Polloc Port in nearby Parang town to Lamitan City in Basilan.

There is a proposed measure, pending in BARMM’s parliament, to transfer the Bangsamoro regional capitol in this city to Parang, a coastal town in Maguindanao del Norte that has mixed Muslim and Christian residents and where the headquarters of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region is located.

Torres, a lawyer and an entrepreneur, told reporters Saturday the new shipping route will catalyze the economic connectivity of Maguindanao del Norte and nearby towns in Lanao del Sur and Cotabato City with Basilan, one of BARMM’s six component-provinces.

“This will provide significant benefits to the business sectors in Cotabato City, in Maguindanao del Norte and in Lamitan City and other municipalities in Basilan. It can also create new trading avenues for the business communities in these areas,” Torres said.

Mayor Roderick Furigay of Lamitan City, where there has been a noticeable influx of investors from outside in recent months, said Saturday he and his constituent-community leaders are thankful to the MOTC and Marina officials in the autonomous region for the feat.

“Residents and traders in Lamitan City and towns around now have a direct sea route to Cotabato City and other areas in BARMM and in Region 12 via the Polloc Port in Parang,” Furigay said.

The voyage from Parang to Lamitan City and vice versa lasts for 10 hours, shorter by half a day if compared to the overland route connecting Basilan to Cotabato City via the Zamboanga-Pagadian-Cotabato Highway.

“Imagine the exhaustion you get from travelling first by boat from Basilan to Zamboanga City from where the long overland travel to Cotabato City begins,” Furigay said.

Tago, who, as regional transportation and communications minister also sit in the 80-member BARMM parliament, said he and Alonto Sahiron, the director of Marina in the autonomous region, shall together convince other shipping companies to venture into the newly-established Maguindanao del Norte-Basilan sea route.