Merchants glad with improvements in Cotabato Airport

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Members of different business blocs were elated with the setting up by the Bangsamoro government of offices of two regional agencies in the Cotabato Airport to hasten services to incoming and outgoing plane passengers.

The new offices of the Bangsamoro Airport Authority (BAA) and the Civil Aeronautics Board of the Bangsamoro (CABB) at the Cotabato Airport in Barangay Awang in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte were inaugurated last month by regional officials led by Transportation and Communications Minister Paisalin Pangandaman Tago.

The lawyer Ronald Hallid Dimacisil Torres, chairman of the Bangsamoro Business Council, told reporters on Saturday, December 7, that the setting up of the new BAA and CABB offices right at the Cotabato Airport virtually complemented their efforts to harness the investment potentials of Cotabato City and nearby areas.

“We are thankful to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for having established the new offices of these two agencies right at the Cotabato Airport,” Torres said

Torres said they can tell potential investors from around Mindanao and from abroad that the MoTC-BARMM has improved a lot the facilities and operation of the Cotabato Airport, the gateway to the Bangsamoro region.

Mohammad Pasigan, chairperson of the Bangsamoro Board of Investments, told reporters that foreign investors would first ask about the condition of the airports and seaports in the autonomous region before they come in and get a feel of the investment climate in Cotabato City and in the nearby Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur provinces.

Pasigan said the MoTC-BARMM is helping them make potential investors feel it is safe to put up businesses in Cotabato City and in nearby Bangsamoro provinces by ensuring the smooth operation of the Cotabato Airport, located near Camp Siongco, where the headquarters of the Army's 6th Infantry Division in located. 

Chinese traders in Cotabato City are elated too, certain that the MoTC-BARMM’s continuing upgrading of the Cotabato Airport and the large Polloc Seaport in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte can boost the investment potentials of the city and nearby municipalities.

“We have been telling our business partners outside of BARMM about these improvements and we are all happy about it,” a wealthy Chinese businessman, operating two hardware stores in Cotabato City, told reporters.

Cotabato City, less than 10 kilometers north of the Cotabato Airport, is the regional capital of BARMM.