MinDA to focus on poverty, productivity, peace: Piñol
Reduction of poverty, increase in productivity and pursuit of lasting peace in Mindanao will be the priority concerns of the Mindanao Development Authority under the watch of Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” F. Pinol, MinDA’s newly assumed chairman.
Piñol spelled out his program focuses in a speech during the formal MinDA’s turnover from Assistant Secretary for Mindanao Affairs Nathaniel Dalumpines, who was named acting MinDA chairman, after the untimely demise of Secretary Adul Khayer Alonto last May. Pinol earlier resigned from his position as secretry of the Department of Agriculture. His term of office in MinDA is six years.
He called Mindanao an “island of paradoxes,” lamenting that eight of the country’s 10 poorest provinces are in Mindanao, despite its being “a rich and fertile land very seldom affected by climate disturbances.”
The secretary enumerated some MinDA projects which started out as “admirable plans and programs”, and “great projects” with “lofty targets” but eventually failed. He likened the efforts as trying “to build a huge dream on very weak foundations.”
For starters, he proposed the expansion of the MinDA board of directors to include representatives of the Bangsamoro and the Indigenous Peoples, saying they must be represented in MinDA because they are the “real stakeholders.”
Pinol discussed briefly the Mindanao Railway Project, the Davao-Bitung shipping project and the barter trade, saying that the more important aspect of these projects is the abundance of Philippine products that they can carry.
This is why it is important for Mindanao to improve its productivity, he said.
In the area of funding huge projects, Pinol said MinDA will encourage local government units in Mindanao to use the power granted to them by law to borrow money rather than rely on the assistance of the national government.
He said that MinDA has this early been assured the assistance of foreign governments in pursuing projects aimed at developing certain sectors and places of Mindanao and in removing some Mindanao provinces from the list of the country’s poorest areas. He mentioned the governments of Turkey, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand whose officials attended the MinDA turnover.
Pinol said that MinDA will see to it that enough cheap and sustainable electricity is abundant in the islands as this is an indispensable requirement of industries which will come to invest in Mindanao and power its progress.
He said MinDA will be biased in favour of renewable energy such as solar and wind power resources. Pinol also mentioned the importance of the hydro-electric plants in Lanao provinces in the quest for an industrialized Mindanao.
Aside from members of the diplomatic community, Bangsamoro leaders, two Muslim sultans and tribal chieftains, and former lawmakers attended the turnover rite.
In the ensuing press conference, Pinol mentioned the fact that he studied in the University of Mindanao as a college work scholar and started his media work in Davao City. The MinDA chief has a house in Davao City.
