Mindanao will no longer be a ‘backdoor’ – Alonto

From the Manila Bulletin (Jan 26): Mindanao will no longer be a ‘backdoor’ – Alonto

Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) chair Abdul Khayr Alonto said that the island provinces of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will no longer be a “backdoor” but a gateway of the Philippines to the neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.

Alonto, who also leads one of the factions of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), said that they will strive harder to transform the conflict-stricken areas of Mindanao and strengthen its position as a founding member of the economic sub-region Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

“BIMP-EAGA, in fact, could very well be an instrument to restore Mindanao once again as the gateway of the Philippines to the BIMP-EAGA countries and to the world and to China… Mindanao was the gateway but after all these decades with policies that we imposed on Mindanao, it was referred to as the backdoor. This time, Mindanao is no backdoor and we will work it out as the gateway,” he said.

The ARMM is composed of five provinces – island provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, which are often referred to as “BASULTA”, Lanao del Sur, and Maguindanao.

Among the efforts that they will do to better prepare Mindanao as the country’s gateway will be to work on improving the connectivity of the island region to the rest of the ASEAN, Alonto said.

Alonto stressed that naval security forces within the territorial waters off the three ARMM island provinces must be strengthened to protect the civilians and potential investors from threats like kidnapping and terrorism.

http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/01/26/mindanao-will-no-longer-be-a-backdoor-alonto/