RORO rolls on for peace and progress

LAMITAN, BASILAN, Philippines – Domingo Narciso, the manager of a farming cooperative here, recalls the once-tedious process of getting his co-op’s rubber, coffee and copra harvests to buyers in Zamboanga City.

“It was time-consuming and costly, due to the ‘double handling’ of cargo,” Narciso said. The produce had to be trucked into Lamitan, unloaded at the port, then stacked aboard the ferry.

After the two-hour sea voyage across the Basilan Strait to Zamboanga City, the produce would again have to be unloaded, and packed into a hired vehicle.

This was before Lamitan’s port was outfitted with a “roll-on, roll-off” (RORO) ramp by USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program.

The RORO facility allows cargo trucks and other land vehicles to simply roll on and then off the ferry. It minimizes damage to the goods in transit, and reduces handling charges.

“RORO helps to eliminate spoilage. You earn more when you can maintain the quality of your cargo,” said Jann Jakilan, a retailer and president emeritus of the chamber of commerce, who is also the former chief of the 2nd Mobile Army of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

After the Lamitan facility was completed in May 2005, RORO traffic in Basilan more than tripled, from 200 vehicles in January 2006 to 900 vehicles that same year. Vessels calling at the port experienced faster turn-around rates, and shipping costs were greatly reduced.

In 2008, more than 3,300 vehicles plied the Zamboanga-Lamitan route through RORO, according to the Philippine Ports Authority.

“It used to take days or even weeks to move our products. Now, with the help of infrastructure, it takes us just a few hours,” said Rima Hassan, president of the Autonomous Basilan Islamic Chamber of Commerce.

“Our transport costs were cut by half because of RORO,” marveled Narciso.                            

The ease of RORO has meant higher earnings for Narciso and the other members of the Sta. Clara Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative, which is comprised of both Christian and Muslim members, including former combatants of the MNLF.

Sta. Clara, which is located some distance inland, recently diversified its farming production to establish the first commercial tilapia operation on Basilan, with GEM technical support.

With its members peacefully working together from day to day, the co-op serves as a small haven of social and economic stability in an area isolated by intermittent armed conflict. Its farm operations provide a source of livelihood not just for its members, but for the local workers it hires.

“When people are employed, peace and order are maintained in the area, and security threats minimized,” Narciso explained candidly.

The success of the Sta. Clara co-op has encouraged other growers to expand their own production.

“We’re now helping other Basilan co-ops to design their own five-year development plans. Nagtutulungan kami dito (we help each other out),” said Narciso. “We want everybody to be successful.”

In the next four to five years, he said, the co-op plans to establish its own plant for producing finished rubber products like tires and slippers, which can be shipped to Zamboanga.

“RORO has led more people to do business,” observed Jakilan. “Many are now using their own trucks (to transport their goods).”

“And now people are starting to invest in the area because they see these new businesses rising,” said Hassan, who is CEO of Mindanao Autonomous Colleges in Lamitan and holds a doctorate in education, the first Yakan woman to receive this academic qualification.

Observers have also noticed the number of new vehicles and busier roads leading to Lamitan and its port.

According to a World Bank study, there is a strong correlation between increasing road traffic and accelerated economic development.

“There are a lot of new cars and even public transport vehicles are better,” Hassan said.

USAID’s GEM Program has completed 40 regional impact projects across Mindanao’s conflict-affected areas, including port, airport and road upgrades, bridges, boat landings, and water supply upgrades, in partnership with national line agencies and local governments, and under the oversight of the Mindanao Economic Development Council.

It has also built nearly a thousand barangay infrastructure projects, and expects to complete another 900 in the next four years.

This is in line with GEM’s goal of helping to consolidate peace in Mindanao and accelerate its economic growth while ensuring that as many people as possible benefit from this growth.

“Dissatisfaction leads people to do things (which are against the law). Because of limited options, the mindset here was, whatever is in front of me right now, I will just grab it,” Hassan said.

“But when people are productive, they don’t think of going to the mountains,” she added. “They will forget about guns because they are earning and can put food on the table for their families.”

“Both Muslims and Christians benefit from having roads and bridges. These are basic necessities for doing business,” said Narciso. “Pag may mga projects na ganito, na re-reduce ang gulo (when you have projects like these, conflict is reduced).”