InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
TACURONG CITY, Philippines - Impoverished Maguindanao improved its standing, inching from 17th to 15th among the country’s 20 most depressed provinces while Cotabato City, one classified as third class, will enjoy first class city status in January.
But Maguindanao Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadato, while happy at the announcement of the Department of Finance, said he cannot be contented until the province makes it out of the most depressed category.
Cotabato City Mayor Japal “Jojo” Guiani Jr., on the other hand, after bragging of a P50 million increase in tax collection last year, said he wants his constituents to “feel the impact of this development to the lives of the people by improving more on the delivery of basis services.”
Before the city was chartered, it was part of Maguindanao province.
Mangudadatu, in an interview, said Maguindanao’s improved standing “was not enough because we want to be erased in the list of bottom 20.”
He attributed the upward movement of the province to the “investments that are coming” in even as he stressed it was “premature to even start counting the gains because alleviating this province could really not be done over night. It will definitely be a long process, but I’m happy we already have done something in so short a time.”
To achieve his goal of seeing Maguindanao off the bottom 20, Mangudadatu said he has adopted three major strategies focused on education, agricultural development and peace and order.
He said the provincial government already has over a thousand college scholars, a number he intends to increase next year, because “if our 2. 4 percent literacy rate is increased to even just 30 percent it will make a big difference in our development efforts.”
Mangudadatu said his administration is also embarking on an “aggressive agriculture development program” by investing on in palm tree and rubber seedlings, which are given free to Maguindanao residents.
With the seedlings handed to farmers who can show proof of ownership of their land, 852 hectares have been planted to oil palm and rubber trees this year. An oil palm seedling costs P200 to P225 while a rubber tree seedling costs P28 to P30.
The provincial government has purchased P40 million worth of oil palm and rubber tree seedlings to be planted next year in 1,200 hectares of land, most of these in the Ampatuan town where 58 people, among whom were 32 media workers and some 20 relatives of Mangudadatu, were slaughtered on November 23, 2009.
Aside from oil palm and rubber trees, 2,000 hectares of land in Ampatuan have also been identified as expansion areas for banana plantations.
The seedlings, Mangudadatu said, are given to farmers with only one to five hectares of land. They also enjoy free harrowing by four tractors the provincial government has purchased. “They pay only for the fuel cost,” the governor said, adding that the farmers’ counterpart is the cost of farm maintenance and inputs.
In three years time, Mangudadatu expects each of the farmer-beneficiaries to earn an additional income of P10,000 every month for every hectare planted to oil palm or rubber.
However, Mangudadatu said an unstable peace and order situation caused mainly by “rido” or fami;y feuds could disrupt the “aggressive agricultural development” program. Thus, he has organized the Maguidanao Task Force on Reconciliation, which has already resolved at least 11 rido between large clans in the province.
“The MTFR has contributed a lot in the relative peace that we have now in Maguindanao,” he said.
Mangudadatu chairs the task force, which counts “traditional leaders, religious leaders, representatives of civil society organizations, professionals, like doctors and lawyers,” as members.
“We use the traditional way of settling conflicts because these people would not file a case in court and are used to putting the law into their hands. But, we usually seal any settlement with a document that the parties will sign,” he explained. “The document emphasizes that any of the parties who would violate the agreement shall be sued in court.”
Guiani, on the other hand, said that since Cotabato City is “no longer IRA (internal revenue allotment) dependent and now a first class city, we will see to it that government services will reach even the remotest village.”
Cotabato City was second to General Santos City in terms of tax collection in Mindanao this year.
