March 16, 2009 05:55 PM Monday [ journal.com.ph ]
By: Ryan Ponce Pacpaco
THE whole of Mindanao is getting some P8.8 billion in fresh public funding this year for roads and bridges, Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza disclosed yesterday.
Taliño-Mendoza said the amount is contained in this year’s P1.414-trillion national budget, which President Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law Friday.
“There is no question that Mindanao desperately needs a massive and quick injection of public infrastructure spending now and in the years ahead to drive economic end employment growth,” Taliño-Mendoza said.
“For instance, according to the National Economic Development Authority, we have 6,009 kilometers of national roads throughout Mindanao, yet 44 percent of them, or 2,650 kilometers are still unpaved,” she said.
Taliño-Mendoza said infrastructure projects not only instantly create new jobs that directly benefit poor households, but also enable greater efficiencies that generate more income for farmers and lower food prices.
“Mindanao moves large quantities of farm produce every year. Thus, we definitely welcome new infrastructures that not only allow our farmers to produce more, but also make it possible for them to convey products faster,” she said.
Every year, Taliño-Mendoza said Mindanao moves some four million metric tons (MT) of corn, 3.9 million MT of palay, 9.5 million MT of coconut, 6.5 million MT of bananas, 3.8 million MT of sugar, two million MT of pineapple, and 1.5 million MT of cassava.
Citing data from the National Statistics Office, she also said that every year, Mindanao moves some 500,000 liveweight MT of swine, 250,000 MT of chicken and 82,000 MT of cattle.
“Additional infrastructures will clearly make us more productive, more efficient and more competitive,” Taliño-Mendoza said.
The Cotabato lawmaker stressed the need for government to consciously increase infrastructure spending for Mindanao to compensate for the private sector’s apparent disinclination to invest in such projects, mainly due to perceived peace and order issues.
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