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Development Council (MEDCo) Chair Undersecretary Virgilio Leyretana said that as exemplified by MEDCo for 16 years now “there is a need for a strong, responsible and accountable institution to deliver the promises for Mindanao”.
Waxing both historical and philosophical, he said that since the transitory Commonwealth period (1935-1946) up until MEDCo’s creation in 1992 Mindanao had then been experiencing “erratic, intermittent developments” ushered by the central government.
“There had been ever-changing development plans for the island each time national leadership changed. In short, there had been not only absence of coherence in planning, but also absence of consistency of policy support resulting to non-continuity of programs that ultimately contributed to the peace and order problem in Mindanao,” he said.
He said that the first body given to Mindanao in the post-colonial period was the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes in 1920, “but a decade after nothing had happened” and “62 years after our independence from the colonial US government, developments remained erratic and our Muslim brothers felt neglected, undermined, ignored”.
Mindanao remained to be a backwaters region, and even became a dumping ground of rejects, scoundrels, scalawags, carpetbaggers, mercenaries, while the island saw ad hoc, transitory, palliative bodies in various administrations, and task forces during Marcos time, in short, placebo for Mindanao,” he added.
ENTER MEDCo
Not until MEDCo came into being, Usec. Leyretana said, “and to the credit of former President Fidel V. Ramos, there was relative peace in Mindanao” citing how Ramos during his presidency pushed his concept of making Mindanao an island region and grouping into one sub-regional cluster Mindanao and the other neighboring far-flung and depressed regions that now come to be called as the BIMP-EAGA (Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area) since 1994.
The long-running idea with the MEDCo around for 16 years is to consolidate Mindanao as an integrated island economy having one vision and agenda to give justice to economic inequity and development disparity borne by Mindanao throughout its history.
“Our Mindanao catch-up plan is in the works to give meaning to attain wholistic, balanced national development. In all those years since 1992 that MEDCo has been making gains and headways for Mindanao MEDCo has been every President’s workhorse for Mindanao,” he said.
MEDCo in various reviews and assessments has achieved several milestones since its assumption as a coordinative and integrative Mindanaowide mechanism in the island. The Mindanao Island Cluster of the League of the Municipalities of the Philippines cited MEDCo’s efforts in the formulation of the Mindanao 2000 Development Framework Plan and the Mindanao Investment Program (MIP), and as the country’s coordinating office, its facilitation of making strong economic partnership of Mindanao and Palawan with the BIMP regions.
Particularly, it also facilitated completion of Mindanao-wide infrastructure projects and became effective primary oversight, implementing or executive agency for at least nine major Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) programs and projects for Mindanao, among them are the Growth with Equity in Mindanao program (USAID), PA-BEAM 2, Strengthening Health Service in ARMM, Mindanao Trust Fund (multi-donor), and Mindanao Peace and Development (MAPD) (USAID).
MEDA: PERMANENT MECHANISM
Leyretana added MEDCo is “not only planning for the island but also integrates and coordinates all programs of Mindanao”.
“We have been accomplishing all these things in collaboration with local government units, the private sector, civil society, academe, line agencies, and gained integrity, dependability and confidence of donor agencies and countries, because we carried with the President’s imprimatur and there has been no intervening layer,” the undersecretary said.
At the backdrop that Mindanao has intermittent armed conflicts as it is a home of the long-running separatist insurgencies waged by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the breakaway faction of the Moro National Liberation Front and the New People’s Army, while it has the most diverse culture mix of people in the country and has five regions that belong to the bottom 5 in terms of human development, the island needs a distinct, permanent mechanism to address these.
MEDCo and its stakeholders are now pushing for the immediate passage of the House Bill No. 5255 also known as Mindanao Economic Development Authority (MEDA) Act of 2008.
Former President Fidel V. Ramos recently dubbed MEDA as a solution “considering Mindanao’s recent history of “sulong-atras” (forward-backward) governance” and as “a lasting institutional mechanism to insure a continuous coordinative and integrative process in formulating and implementing Mindanao-wide, inter-regional development plans, programs and projects for maximum impact and benefit.”
EO 757
But all MEDCo’s gains and niches made and projection as a single integrative and coordinative Mindanaowide body pushing for peace and development initiatives could go for naught now as it is stymied by President Gloria Arroyo’s move of placing it under NEDA.
Arroyo issued Executive Order 757 on October 13 this year, placing MEDCo under the oversight of the NEDA from the Office of Presidential Assistant for the Peace Process (OPAPP), which is under the Office of the President (OP). Before OPAPP, MEDCo had been directly under the OP since the Aquino administration.
For this current ruckus, former President Ramos said that the “recent flurry of planning and integrating activities by executives, experts and lawmakers on two broad fronts – peacemaking and socio-economic development – augurs well for the people of Mindanao and that since its creation in 1992 until recently, all these multifarious activities were being handled by Malacañang thru MEDCo. By virtue of a new Executive Order, however, MEDCo has just been detached from the Office of the President”
“In this latest situation, it appears that there is again a tug-of-war over turf, logistics and influence over Mindanao solutions – which is an undesirable but recurring phenomenon in Philippine governance,” Ramos added in a recent column entitled “The Mindanao Economic Development Authority”.
He stressed on the need to have “one official – and only one” official in Mindanao representing the President citing that during his presidency he had only one Presidential Assistant for Mindanao (PAMIN) Paul Dominguez, “(who) was clothed with sufficient authority to make on-the-spot decisions over Mindanao matters already covered by national or Presidential policy. “
“This efficient set-up quickly disintegrated during the succeeding Estrada administration with the appointment of 3 PAREs (Presidential Assistants for Regions) in Mindanao – which resulted in inevitable rivalry for Presidential attention and “goodies” by his 3 “com-pares,” he added.
Asked on whether there is a current turf war between MEDCo and NEDA and on who shoot first, Usec. Leyretana refused to comment but said he has been abiding with the President’s position on the issue.
NEDA, for its part, has remained mum as it has not yet released a single statement in its website until yesterday over the controversial EO 757.
At press time, there is yet no movement coming from NEDA following the issuance of EO 757 that has already sparked a controversy as various stakeholders in Mindanao either expressed wariness over or voiced opposition to the to the move.
As the implementing rules and regulations of EO 757 have yet to emerge on the scene, MEDCo is still on the thick of hammering on the Mindanao 2020, a strategic plan to modernize Mindanao, which was launched last July. It is an the upgraded sequel to Mindanao 2000 Development Framework Plan (Mindanao 2000) drawn out from MEDCo’s efforts.
MINDANAO 2020
Mindanao 2000 was promulgated in 1995 and the precursor to the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of September 1996. Its medium-term and long-range plans for achieving enduring peace and sustainable development in Southern Philippines, Palawan are now being upgraded to be more responsive to and more in-sync with present and anticipated regional and global conditions.
“The existing Mindanao 2000 framework will be transformed into a more refined roadmap – which is Mindanao 2020. This process – to the credit of MEDCo – has been started,” former President Ramos said.
Mindanao under the aegis of MEDCo’s roles as oversight, implementing or executive agency of various ODA projects and the President’s overseer to national flagship projects sees and awaits high impact plans, infrastructure projects and further BIMP linkages.
Among in the list of Ramos, MEDCo’s eminent adviser-resource person, are 27 major infrastructure projects under PGMA’s Mindanao “Super Region” concept, Sibuco-Sirawai-Siocon-Baliguian-Gutalac Road (connecting Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur) and Surigao Sur-Davao Oriental Coastal Road, Panguil Bay Bridge, the Mindanao Railway System (MRS) as pushed by two House bills, convergence plans for tour aviation packages and One Stop Action Centers (OSACs) in BIMP-EAGA member-countries and the emerging Central East Asia Growth Polygon (CEAGPOL).
MEDCo’s STAKEHOLDERS
Usec. Leyretana said that the Mindanao 2020 planning process is being undertaken foremost by Mindanaoan stakeholders, particularly the MEDCo’s partners and cooperators such as the Confederation of Provincial Governors, City Mayors, and Municipal Mayors Leagues of Mindanao, the Mindanao Bloc (group of lawmakers from Mindanao led by House Speaker Prospero Nograles), Mindanao Business Council (Federation of Chambers of Commerce and various business support organizations), Kusog Mindanaw, (group of civil society organizations), Mindanao Studies Consortium Foundation, Inc. (association of academic and research institutions), and the Bishop-Ulama Forum.
For all these MEDCo’s efforts in trying to deliver the goods and bring home the bacon to Mindanao for years, the presidential order has instead sparked a controversy as various Mindanao stakeholders – businessmen, public officials, civil society and academes have either expressed wariness or opposed to MEDCo’s placing under NEDA.
Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industries Foundation Inc. (Oro Chamber) president Rodolfo Meñes said that MEDCo has the potential of becoming that one much-needed Mindanao development authority and, as such, putting it under NEDA must be “studied very carefully” before full implementation.
Rey Magno Teves, Kusog Mindanaw convenor and director of Development Bank of the Philippines, feared that with the move, “we will be back to the days when there was lack of Mindanao-wide consolidating mechanism.”
“The move is out of step with the headways that MEDCo has been making in the peace and development efforts in Mindanao. It’s like two steps backwards- back to the gods in Manila,” said Atty. Mary Ann Arnado, chair of Mindanao Peace Caucus.
On the other hand, Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Inc. (DCCCII) strongly opposed the move saying that it “was act of demotion to MEDCo, while (NEDA) has yet to prove its relevance in the development of Mindanao.”
“Besides, we don’t want MEDCo to be dragged into NEDA’s ZTE-NBN scam!” said Fr. Albert Alejo, SJ, chair of the Mindanawon Initiatives for Cultural Dialogue.
Quite cries from Mindanaons indeed.. To these heights and scales and the strength of Mindanaoan structures established by MEDCo, questions have been asked by several quarters on whether putting MEDCo under the “usual bureaucracy” typified by NEDA it could still make an unhindered dent in trying to deliver the promises for Mindanao in the remaining months of President Arroyo and beyond. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)
Filed under: Uncategorized, medco, medco chair viriglio leyretana, neda
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