Connecting the islands

WITH three main islands and more than 7,000 smaller ones spread out from north to south, the Philippines as an archipelago faces the daunting task of connecting the remote ones to the major economic and political centers.

The national government, however, wants to improve connectivity of remote islands with provincial capitals.

How to do this? Through the construction of an additional 200 seaports worth a total of P125 billion from now until 2028.

At present, the country has about 2,000 seaports, with the Department of Transportation having completed 250 port projects since 2015..

According to the agency, the planned terminals will have limited capacity as these will be able to accommodate only fishing boats and roll-on/roll-off vessels.

But these will boost not only domestic tourism but also agriculture by serving as farm-to-market ports.

Apart from these, the planned ports will also help in disaster response during typhoons and other natural disasters.

Previously, the DOTr also laid out plans for building and expanding 14 RoRo ports across the country. Each is estimated to cost P100 million.

Projects on the pipeline include San Vicente Roro Port, Maconacon Port and Palanan Port in Northern Luzon; Dilasag Port, Baler Port, Infanta Port and Catanauan Port in Eastern Luzon; Cadiz Port, Ajuy Port and San Fernando Port in Central Visayas; Lupon Roro Port and Sta. Ana Roro Port in Mindanao.

Turtle Island in the province of Tawitawi is also one of the locations.

Continuing port development is also in line with the vision of achieving a strong and reliable Philippine merchant fleet that addresses the sea transport requirements of the archipelago.

But this program will have obtain adequate financing from the Department of Budget and Management so the DOTr can jump-start the projects.

Improvement of the country’s nautical highway in the next four years until 2028, which will support vital economic sectors like agriculture and trade, is part of the Philippine Development Plan for 2023 to 2028.

New linkages and strategic location of new ports will be assessed to create new rural growth areas.

The capacity of roll-on, roll-off facilities will be increased and processes will be digitized to address congestion and delays.

The Philippine Ports Authority reported that passenger traffic in sea terminals surged by 24 percent to 73.61 million in 2023 from 59.19 million previously.

However, this was still below the 2019 level of 83.72 million passengers. Cargo throughput or cargo traffic, meanwhile, grew by about 5 percent to 271.97 million metric tons last year from 259.14 million MT in 2022, surpassing the pre-pandemic volume of 265.88 million MT.

Consolidating the peace in BARMM

Worth waiting for in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is the upcoming first-ever parliamentary elections in this part of the country wracked for a long time by armed rebellion.

Why is this significant? The eight political parties joining next year’s polls have pledged to make the historic polls honest, credible and peaceful.

The party leaders gathered recently in Davao City under the auspices of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, a United Kingdom public body working to strengthen democratic governance and open societies around the world.

The WFD assisted in strengthening the Bangsamoro parliament as well as supporting the development of the region’s political party system.

The party leaders vowed to “defend election integrity” in the BARMM set alongside the 2025 midterm elections.

This will be the first time that the BARMM will be electing its parliament members. The Bangsamoro region is currently headed by an interim parliament composed of presidential appointees.

Under its charter, the BARMM has an 80-member legislature, 40 seats to be filled by party representatives, 32 by parliamentary district representatives and eight by sectoral representatives.

All eight political parties in the BARMM have registered with the Commission on Elections and ready to field candidates in next year’s elections.

These are the United Bangsamoro Justice Party, Bangsamoro Peoples Party, Bangsamoro Party, Rayyat Development Party, Al-Ittihad Mindanawe Darussalam-Ungaya Ku Kawagibu Bangsamoro, Serbisyong Inklusibo-Alyansang Progresibo (Siap), and Indigenous Peoples Democratic Party.

Will next year’s BARMM elections be peaceful and credible? We certainly hope so, since it will consolidate the gains of the peace process after decades of bloody warfare since the 1970s.

—“— Worth waiting for in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is the upcoming firstever parliamentary elections

(Email: ernhil@tyahoo.com)