P88.3-M sea, lake port projects in BARMM set

COTABATO CITY — Members of various business blocs were elated with the allocation of the Bangsamoro government of P88.3 million for the improvement of a seaport in Tawi-Tawi and construction of five lake ports in Lanao del Sur.

The lawyer-entrepreneur Ronald Hallid D. Torres, chairperson of the Bangsamoro Business Council, and Mohammad O. Pasigan, who is overseeing the Bangsamoro Board of Investments, separately told reporters on Sunday that the port projects of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MoTC) in the autonomous region will boost commerce and trade in Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur.

Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur are component provinces of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

“These projects will boost our efforts of showing to potential investors in other regions and abroad that we have these facilities that are essential to the socio-economic growth of the Bangsamoro region,” Mr. Torres said.

Minister Paisalin P. Tago of the MoTC and representatives of four different construction companies forged in Cotabato City last Wednesday separate contracts for the modernization of the main building and the passenger terminal in the Bongao Seaport in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi and the construction of the lake ports in lakeside towns in Lanao del Sur.

Lake Lanao is where thousands of ethnic Maranaos catch freshwater fish every day that they supply to markets in Lanao del Sur’s 39 towns and in its capital, Marawi City.

Mr. Tago said the BARMM government has allocated P88.3 million for the projects.

“The lake ports that we are to construct will hasten the mobility of people who rely on Lake Lanao as a source of income,” Mr. Tago said.

The MoTC has two agencies, the Bangsamoro Airport Authority and the Bangsamoro Ports Authority, that manage the airports and seaports in the autonomous region, both under the operational control of Mr. Tago. — John Felix M. Unson