More buses for routes linking BARMM to Region 12 sought

COTABATO CITY— Officials on Thursday urged bus companies in Mindanao to add more units plying through highways connecting three Bangsamoro provinces to trading sites in Region 12 to boost economic activities in Moro enclaves along the routes.

Bangsamoro Transportation and Communications Minister Paisalin Pangandaman Tago told reporters on Thursday that they have a plan to convince starting January the owners of bus companies covering Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur and parts of Region 12 to add more units to operate in highways crisscrossing the four areas. This seeks to hasten the mobility of residents and merchants engaged in barangay level entrepreneurial and trading activities.

There are 63 Bangsamoro barangays in different towns in Cotabato province, which is inside the territory of Administrative Region 12.

“We have been seeing improvements in commerce and trade in towns in Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro region and nearby Moro-dominated barangays in Region 12 in recent months and that is something we need to complement via efforts like this,” Tago said.

Tago, a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament besides being at the helm of the region’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications, said he will convince his colleagues in the regional law-making body to focus on legislations that can provide bus companies protection and special premiums while operating in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza, chairperson of the Regional Development Council-12, on Thursday said that she will support the efforts to the MOTC-BARMM. She said that it is essential to the economic growth of small-scale traders in the 63 Bangsamoro barangays in different towns that are under her administration.

Mendoza said that local officials in the municipalities in Cotabato province that have barangays now under BARMM are doing their best to sustain and expand  the trading ties between Moro farmers and businessmen in their town centers.

“By seeing more buses plying the routes connecting BARMM provinces to towns and cities in Region 12, investors can easily conclude it is safe to venture into capital-intensive projects in Moro-dominated barangays,” Mendoza, a staunch supporter of Malacañang’s peace overtures with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front, said.

Major Gen. Alex Rillera, who is commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, BARMM regional police director Brig. Gen. Allan Nobleza and his counterpart in Region 12, Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, had separately expressed readiness to work together in maximizing security in highways connecting the Bangsamoro provinces in mainland Mindanao and Region 12 if bus companies are to add more units to serve in both areas.

“Our current security efforts related to that are, in fact, supported by local government units,” Rillera said.