VICE President Jejomar Binay on Sunday vowed to develop Mindanao with increased government spending for social services and more infrastructure, a bigger share of national taxes for local governments, and more foreign investors in agriculture and power.
In a speech at the Kusog Mindanaw’s Presidential Forum in Davao City, Binay said Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, both in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, belonged to the poorest provinces.
To ease poverty in Mindanao, he said, his administration would start by allocating a higher share of the internal revenue allotment or IRA for the poor municipalities there if he won the presidency.
“We shall endeavor to give the poorer third- to fifth-class municipalities a bigger share of the IRA,” Binay said.
“At present, the 34-percent shared by close to 1,500 municipalities is not sufficient to finance economic activities and social services in the countryside, especially municipalities that are IRA-dependent.”
Binay also said his administration would strive to create a business environment that will attract investors in agriculture and manufacturing and generate more jobs in these sectors.
“These sectors absorb low-skilled and less-educated workers,” he said, noting that the majority of Mindanaoans were subsistence farmers and landless laborers.
According to the World Bank, Mindanao’s unemployment rate is 5.3 percent compared to Luzon’s 8.5 percent, but underemployment is higher in Mindanao at 21 percent compared to Luzon’s 18 percent.
Mindanao’s formal sector is also small and skewed towards the Davao region at 15 percent and Northern Mindanao at 25 percent.
Moreover, manufacturing is very small and agriculture, despite being the dominant sector, is the least productive.
“We will promote cacao, coffee and coconut since these crops give Mindanao a competitive advantage. We will undertake an aggressive expansion of rural infrastructure and improvement of supply chain and logistics,” Binay said.
He also vowed to invest more in social services under his presidency.
He cited a World Bank report that an additional P350 billion is needed in the next three years in Mindanao for investments in health, infrastructure and education to bring it within the upper middle class category of the Southeast Asian region.