Mindanao Summit adopts workshop outputs

Mindanao Summit adopts workshop outputs

By PHIL PA-ALAN, Publisher-Editor, The Mindanao Gazette

(A reprint from The Mindanao Gazette in August 2014 issue for purposes of documentation and reference)

ILIGAN CITY - The Mindanao Empowerment Summit held in Davao City from June 26 to 27, 2014 has adopted the Covenant for the Mindanao Empowerment and a Resolution endorsing the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), including the reform and development proposals for Mindanao.

Hosted by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the Summit organized ten (10) workshops to tackle issues and concerns affecting Mindanao to ascertain the real needs and problems of the people of Mindanao and to evoke from them what they believed as the most realistic solutions thereon.  The issues and concerns  tackled and intensely deliberated upon in  the ten (10) workshops include: (1) Energy Sufficiency; (2) Peace and Order; (3) Food Security and Agro-Industrial Economy; (4) Infrastructure; (5) Reconstruction and Rehabilitation; (6) Social Services and Development; (7) Fiscal Autonomy for the LGUs; (8) Climate Change; (9) Transportation and Communications;  (10) Political Reform;  (11) Electoral Reform;  and (12) Representation in the National Government.

On Energy Sufficiency, the workshop members stressed that of the three major Islands of the Philippines, Mindanao has, on several occasions, been on the verge of economic cliff, not only because of the insurgency that it has since the 1970s, but because of inadequacy of electric power for the last decades or so.  They added that almost all the social and economic activities in Mindanao have been adversely affected by electric fluctuation and irregular or intermittent supply of energy brought about by benign-neglect or intentional deprivation by those in-charge. 

Without enumerating the specific issues and concerns affecting power generation, transmission and distribution, the workshop members are of the opinion that the energy department should consider any or all or a combination of the following measures:

1. Immediate repair, rehabilitation and operation of the government existing power generation plants and facilities in Mindanao so they can be put in full utilization, not to waste;

2. Immediate construction of additional hydro plants in combination with windmills, solar energy, and other renewable sources of energy where they are appropriate.  To this end, each local government unit should take the necessary steps to prevent power interruptions/shortfalls;

3. Immediately ban the installation/construction of environmentally-unfriendly and health hazard power generators, including those whose costs to the consumers are prohibitive.  The affordability and sustainability factors should also be considered.

4. Initiate and support the regionalization of power generation, transmission and distribution through the consortium of local government units within each region;

5. Creation of the Mindanao Power Corporation to manage and operate government power generation plants/facilities.  For this purpose, revisit and amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA LAW) to bring the government back to the industry as a major power generator, supplier and distributor;

6. Creation of a joint Executive-Legislative Oversight Committee;

7. Provide 20% subsidy on the electric consumption of the poor whose income is below the poverty line.

On Peace and Order, the workshop members said that we witnessed the fact that the signing of the 1996 GRP-MNLF Peace Accord did not bring peace in Mindanao due to the lapses in the implementation of the agreement that both parties should willingly address in the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), after all, the MILF and MNLF are comrades in arms.  They added that however, even with the harmonization of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and the 1996 GRP-MNLF peace accord, the problem on peace and order would still be around as crimes against persons, properties and liberties are committed in broad daylight and almost every minute.

To gradually mitigate the incidence of criminalities which is rising in Mindanao, the workshop members recommend to the national government to consider any or all of the following measures:

1. Provide police visibility in the 42,027 barangays all over the country. This can be done by converting the barangay tanod into barangay policemen clothing them with authority to pursue and arrest culprits.  the Philippine National Police (PNP) shall conduct the training for the barangay policemen who are appointed by the barangay council with disciplinary power to suspend erring barangay policemen by majority vote of its members, and to dismiss an erring barangay policemen by 3/4 vote of its members;

2. Make the local chief executives, including the barangay chairmen responsible for the maintenance of peace and order in their respective locality/barangay. Failure to do so should be considered a ground for the suspension of the local chief executives concerned;

3. Strengthen the regional and local peace and order councils by giving them powers to recommend the transfer, suspension, or dismissal from the service of an erring police officer. Expand the composition of the council by including more members from the private sector;

4. Strengthen the barangay justice system by empowering the Lupong Tagapamayapa to cite for contempt parties who do not submit to mediation and arbitration;

5. Creation of the Mindanao peace commission with the following powers, duties and functions:

                5.1. supervise the regional and local peace and order councils in the performance of their duties and functions so that their members would not be remiss in the performance of their respective duties and functions;

                5.2. Promote peaceful co-existence so that the Muslims, Christians and Lumads, alike, can peacefully and harmoniously co-exist and accept each other as Filipinos having the same roots and origin. In a multi-sectoral and diverse society, social , economic and political integration is still the key to peaceful co-existence and solidarity;

                5.3 dismantle as soon as possible private armies and organized crimes so that every man and woman in the Philippines would feel safe and secure;

                5.4. Initiate the collection of loose firearms.  this will pave the way for the rule of law to prevail;

                5.5. Integrate into the social and economic life of our society the leaders and members of the private armies and organized crimes to promote national solidarity in its truest meaning.

The workshop members also stressed that while it is true that the economic development effort can simultaneously proceed hand-in-hand with the peace and order effort, it must be conceded that peace is the key to economic development as in tourism and investment,  investors come to places where they are safe and secure.

On food security and agro-industrial economy, the workshop members are of the belief that the survival of a nation, such as ours, largely depends on our capacity to produce the food that we need without having to depend from other countries.  Also, a nation does not exist by food alone,  it goes on with the industrial products, non-food products, hence, the need for the adoption of an agro-industrial and export-oriented economy.

Other than the essential products that we need in our homes, workplaces and surroundings, we need to intensify the production of steel, cement, electronics, and venture into manufacturing of vehicles, ship building and military equipment to be truly independent, self-sustaining and self-reliant.

Specifically, to attain food security and sufficiency, including the industrialization of Mindanao, the national government should consider the following measures:.

                1. Formulation of a land use policy in Mindanao to delineate land for food production, fruit bearing trees, high value/root crops, coconut plantation, palm oil plantation, vegetables and similar farm products and the lands for industrialization;

                2. Promote with the support of the national government, regional and local food production with each local government unit at the core of the initiative in partnership with the private sector. This will stimulate regional and local food security and sufficiency;

                3. Strengthen the farmer's organizations with technical and local assistance from the national and local governments. This is the stimulus for agricultural growth and effective mechanism for poverty mitigation;

                4. Organize pioneering Mindanao industrialist and the government should provide them technical and financial assistance, including tax holidays and incentives from both the national and local government;

                5. Sustain the technical and financial assistance being extended by the national government to the fisher folks in the marine and aquatic/fishing industry to elevate their social and economic status;

                6. Declaration of the strategic regions/areas in Mindanao as industrial zone, agricultural zone, aquamarine/fishing zone, summer and cultural center, financial center, convention center and tourist destination.

On infrastructure, the workshop members claim that the presence of the government is manifested by the infrastructure that it has put in place, it is not what it has at the drawing table. Never can anyone or any local government aspire for social and economic development without connectivity to its neighbors. The first connectivity which links the local governments and regions with each other is a road network such as national , provincial, municipal, city roads including the barangay roads which should all be compliant with the international standard.

And so the following proposals:

1. Widening of existing national roads in Mindanao, construction of national roads in the interior parts of Mindanao, concreting of provincial roads as the major access and farm to market roads. This will provide efficient and effective overland connectivity to the cities, provinces and regions in Mindanao;

2. Construction of municipal halls in all the municipalities in Mindanao where there is none.; This is very important because government is certainly non-existent when its physical presence is not in sight.

3. Construction of additional schoolable school buildings in areas where it is needed and the repair and renovation of existing school buildings with comfort rooms. the need is so acute and urgent in Mindanao if education is considered as one of the solutions to insurgency and poverty reduction;

4. Construction of tourism infrastructure and facilities in areas declared as tourist destination.

On reconstruction and rehabilitation, the workshop members said that the Philippines has now become a prone-disaster country, a typhoon path in Asia, as direct result of climate change the disaster is not only annual but could take place at any time without warning.

As natural and man-made disasters would regularly hit the country, it is proposed very strongly that the Department of National Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (DNRR) be created as soon as possible whose mandate shall be to reconstruct the areas devastated by natural and man-made disasters and to rehabilitate socially and economically the people affected by such calamities.

The loss of human lives and the destruction of properties inflicted upon our people by Typhoons Peping, Ondoy, Sendong, Pablo, and Yolanda as well as the armed siege in Zamboanga city, prompted the recommendation for the creation of the Department of National Reconstruction and Rehabilitation.

Other workshop groups also made recommendations concerning the issues and concerns assigned to them and also subsequently adopted by the Summit.

It can be recalled that a two-day Mindanao Empowerment Summit was convened by Summit convenors headed by Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on June 26 and 27, 2014 at Grand Men Seng Hotel in Davao City to consolidate all existing development plans for Mindanao and integrate them into a single comprehensive development plan with the new challenges in the social, economic, and political life of the our people with the consolidated plan to be known as the “Mindanao Development Agenda for 1630”. 

Specifically, the Mindanao Empowerment Summit hosted by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte, aimed to unite the people of Mindanao for their social, economic, and political empowerment; formulate strategies which will effectively address the issues and concerns affecting Mindanao; and ensure equitable representation of the people of Mindanao in the national government.  The Summit rational cited that since the Commonwealth time up to this day, Mindanao has not been accorded with equitable representation in the government and has been continuously denied proportionate allocation of government resources in terms of projects and programs, despite the fact that Mindanao accounts for the second largest population in the country, the second largest island of the Philippine Archipelago, and produces a little over forty percent (40%), in real terms, of our national food requirements.  It added that to ensure the development of Mindanao, and to fast track the same, and to restore normalcy and maintain peace and order in Mindanao, it is high time that the people of Mindanao should take it upon themselves to lay down their development plan and pursue the same for their better future and the next generation to come.  It concluded that the formulation of the social, economic and political empowerment effort of Mindanao should start  from tackling the present- day issues and concerns affecting its people, as it claimed that the summit could stir up the battle cry for a genuine empowerment of Mindanao.  The issues and concerns tackled in the Summit for Mindanao included energy self-sufficiency, peace and order, infrastructure and rehabilitation, food security and agro-industrial economy, social services and development, transportation and communications, LGUs fiscal autonomy, climate change, political and electoral reform, and representations in the national government. 

The Summit was attended by multi-sectoral leaders of Mindanao with cabinet secretaries as resource speakers, which include Secretary Luwalhati R. Antonino of the Mindanao Development Authority (MDA), who delivered the keynote speech of President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III, who at the time of the Summit was in Japan; DPWH Secretary Rogelio I. Singson;  Undersecretary Austere Panadero, representing  DILG Secretary Mar Roxas; Undersecretary Donato D. Marcos, representing DOE Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla; and Former Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr.. Atty. Sha Elijah Dumama-Alba, representing the MILF; and Atty. Mohammad Al-Amin Julkipli, representing the GRP Negotiation Panel were also present.  Present from the House of Representatives included Representatives Bai Sandra A. Sema; Ma. Lourdes Acosta-Alba; Rogelio Neil P. Roque; and Maximo Rodriguez.

President Aquino in his keynote address which was delivered by Secretary Luwalhati Antonino reassured the people of Mindanao of their share of the wealth of our country, while DPWH Secretary Rogelio L. Singson underscored the various infrastructure projects in Mindanao both completed and on-going.  On the part of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Undersecretary Austere A. Panadero assured the people of Mindanao that in due time they will have enduring and lasting peace with the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) and the dismantling of private armies and organized crimes in Mindanao that the department sees soon to happen.  The Department of Energy speaking through Undersecretary Donato D. Marcos assured the delegates that by 2016 there will be no power interruption in Mindanao.  Senator Koko Pimentel spoke on his bill seeking to increase the share of the local government units (LGUs) in the national taxes, fees and charges from forty percent (40%) to fifty percent (50%) to guarantee that the LGUs would have fiscal autonomy which will make them more responsive to the needs and problems of the their constituents.  Former Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Jr. and City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte both spoke on the Federal System of Government and proposed for a charger change via Constitutional Convention after the 2016 presidential elections so that the various regions of the country as federal states can be self-reliant and competitive. Both leaders also proposed that the delegates to the convention should be elected simultaneously in the 2016 presidential elections. Director Mae Est6er T. Guiamadel, who represented NEDA Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan, presented before the Summit the Mindanao Strategic Development Framework in conjunction with the Mindanao 2020 of the Mindanao Development Authority (MDA) which the office also presented.  Also in attendance were provincial governors led by Governor Steve C. Solo, vice governors led by Vice Governor Arturo Carlos A. Egay, provincial board members led by Board Member Maybell T. Valdevieso, city mayors led by City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte and municipal mayors led by Mayor Omaradji C. Pizarrro, Jr.. From the sectoral groups were Dr. Gerlita S. Ruiz of the University of Mindanao, Pastor Leonardo S. Pumanhog of the assemblies of God, Andy Manlapus of the Davao Housing Cooperative, Rene Arias of the Mindanao Transport Services; Conrado R. Sillada of the Urban Poor of Davao City and many others from the private sector.  Adopted in the Summit were the Covenant for the Mindanao Empowerment and a Resolution endorsing the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), including the reform and development proposals that the summit adopted for Mindanao.