COTABATO CITY – The Regional Board of Investments (RBOI) of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) together with the private sector in the ARMM convened the organizational meeting of the regional Promotion of Investment Sustainability Organization or PISO composed of the registered firms under the RBOI.
The ARMM has been enjoying record multi-billion peso investments in the region since 2013 at the start of the administration of Regional Governor Mujiv S. Hataman. For 2013 the RBOI registered P1.46 billion investments. It more than doubled the following year when RBOI recorded P3.86 billion investments in 2014. In the first quarter of 2015, the RBOI was able to register P863 million and it is on track to possibly match or exceed last year’s investments.
The infusion of private sector investments in the ARMM has been largely attributed to two factors. First is the conducive business climate and stability brought about by the peace process culminating in the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in 2014 between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Second is the continuing ARMM governance reform that has made the region more business friendly.
It is on this premise that the PISO was organized in order to advocate for investment policy stability in the autonomous region including its improvement. PISO is timely now that the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is being debated in Congress and eventually passed into law.
ARMM investors currently enjoy the convenience of getting their permits, licenses, approvals, administrative consents and their regulatory framework from the ARMM regional government without need to go to national agencies in Manila or their regional administrative offices.
If there will be changes to BBL it should not lessen the ARMM autonomy but should seek to improve the investment friendly environment of the region by giving more local autonomy to the region.
Considered the poorest region in the country, investment “rules of the game” in the autonomous region must be maintained, improved and not lessened. Congress should not lose sight of the ease of doing business in the region to encourage more private sector development and not to unduly burden them.
So the only way to have stability of investment policy for private sector development in the region is to make sure that the level of autonomy currently being experienced in the ARMM is not lessened or reduced by the proposed changes to the BBL.
Lawyer Ishak Mastura, RBOI chairman and managing head, presided over the initial PISO meeting. Aside from being one of the PISO conveners, the RBOI will also act as its secretariat.
Presiding duties during meetings will be rotated among the conveners. All registered firms of RBOI are considered members of the PISO.
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