Budget Allocation for Mindanao

Our budgetary support to Mindanao is intended to tap the enormous productive potential of the area at the same time resolve nagging peace and order disturbances. Poverty may not be the root of insurgency and terrorism, but where poverty thrives, these devilish banes can easily spread.

Mindanao has benefited from a higher per capita budget allocation over the years compared to Luzon and Visayas. For 2003, we have identified at least P84.9 billion worth of programs and projects for Mindanao. This is imperative in the light of our efforts to counter the effects of insurgency and rebuild the area from the ravages of terrorism.

Among the major projects to be funded next year are the following:

• construction of airports in Pagadian, Butuan and Cotabato;
• construction of circumferential roads in Basilan, Cotabato City, and Lake Lanao;
• expansion and improvement of vital seaports like those in Davao, Zamboanga, General Santos, Dapitan and Polloc;
• electrification of 82 percent of the barangays in Mindanao, up from 69 percent this year;
• rehabilitation and construction of communal irrigation system (among them, the Saugod River Irrigation in Davao del Norte, Malitubog Libungan Transbasin in North Cotabato, and Maganoy No. 3 Dam in Sultan Kudarat); and
• agricultural modernization projects supported by 37 percent of the Department of Agriculture budget.

DPWH alone will devote at least 31 percent of all its infrastructure projects next year to Mindanao, up from 27 percent this year.

I have also instructed all concerned agencies to realign their regional budgets based on development programs for each area or region and not make their own regional programs separate from area-based development plans. I take this as an important budget policy for 2003 to benefit development areas in Mindanao, including the SOSCKSARGEN, and Davao.