THE cross border trade between the Philippines and Malaysia will be reopened by Feb. 1, more than a year after it was closed due to the surge of kidnapping incidents in maritime borders, Malacañang said Friday.
“On the first of February, barter trade between Sabah, Malaysia and the island provinces of the ARMM will reopen,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella told reporters during a Palace press briefing.
“The chief minister of Sabah, Musa Aman announced the lifting of the trade embargo which came about after a string of kidnapping incidents involving Malaysian victims by the terrorist ASG group in the island provinces,” he added.
With the planned reopening of the cross border trade, the three island provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao—Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi—would be initially serviced by the market trade but will be expanded soon to other territories of the ARMM, even to General Santos City, Abella said.
Abella said that not only did the armed conflicts affect the barter trade between Sabah and the island provinces “but [they] also crippled the economic activities of the constituents there.”
Recently, a roll on-roll off (RoRo) service was opened between General Santos City in Mindanao and Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia and Manado in Indonesia which was launched to strengthen the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines (BIMP-EAGA) trade initiative.