Aquino sees business hub potential of Bangsamoro region

PEACE PROGRESS President Aquino and his adviser on the peace process, Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles, exchange pleasantries following an official announcement that the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have agreed on a road map aimed at ending decadeslong separatist insurgency in Mindanao. EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III is upbeat about the prospects of the future Moro homeland in Mindanao, Bangsamoro, especially as a hub of information technology and business process outsourcing companies.

At a BPO summit Tuesday night, Aquino said the sector, which posted an $11-billion revenue in 2011, was an “an all-important driver of inclusive growth’’ that brought prosperity to areas outside of traditional hubs of commerce and industry.

With an increasing number of IT-BPO companies investing in “next-wave cities’’ such as Sta. Rosa in Laguna, Lipa in Batangas, and Dumaguete, the government was now working hard to make more areas “ripe for investment,’’ Mr. Aquino said.

“With the recently concluded framework agreement with the [Moro Islamic Liberation Front], we are very hopeful that there will come a day, and the not too distant future, when we see a number of IT-BPO companies operating in the Bangsamoro,’’ Aquino said.

After concluding talks in Malaysia on Saturday, the government and the MILF announced a framework agreement to end the war in Mindanao and establish a new political entity, Bangsamoro,  that would replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The preliminary deal has been hailed by the international community as a “historic leap’’ to end a decades-long conflict that has killed more than 150,000 people and impoverished southern Philippines.