BBL passage could spoil investment confidence in ARMM—Mastura

COTABATO CITY – The passage of a watered-down Bangsamoro Basic Law could spoil the soaring investment confidence in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the regional investment chief said.

Datu Ishak Mastura said the P5.5-billion investment fund poured into the region this year alone was the result of improving confidence among businessmen on the viability of doing business in the five-province ARMM because of the peace process and the BBL.

“The P5.5 billion total investment officially recorded this year is thus far the highest in 25 years since the creation of ARMM,” Mastura said during an investment forum here Wednesday.

He said local and foreign investors had told ARMM officials that they were banking on the prospects of long-term peace – through the enactment of the BBL – for putting up business in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The investments, he noted, started coming in after the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.

In 2014, the total investments to the region soared to P3.8 billion right after the signing of the CAB.

Lawyer Maria Asis, senior staff of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, said under the House’ BBL version, the current investment incentives were removed. She said this could further derail the entry of business prospects into the ARMM.

Asis said business incentives were among reasons companies such as East Asia Trilink Corp. – which registered a P1.5-billion submarine cable project between the ARMM and Malaysia – came.

Mastura said the diluted version of the BBL also removed the legislative powers of the proposed region to grant incentives to investors.

“A diluted BBL will not provide for autonomous legislative powers in the new political set-up with regards to transportation and communications as currently enjoyed by the ARMM, and this will mean that projects, such as EA Trilink’s, could be derailed,” he said.

“This is unacceptable because instead of the original BBL draft which is more autonomous than the status quo, the emerging congressional scenario is seen to be a degradation of the present ARMM,” Mastura added. Charlie C. Señase, Inquirer Mindanao/CDG