DoTC projects to focus on Mindanao

The Aquino administration’s infrastructure program will focus on the war-torn Mindanao area, the poorest of the country’s three major island groups, Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas said.

In a statement, Roxas, who sits as a senior member of the Aquino economic team, said a significant portion of the P500 billion the government would be spending next year through the DoTC would go to Mindanao.

“The Aquino administration will seek to change the country’s economic landscape in the next five years with a P500-billion capex (capital expenditure) program targeted at significantly impacting people’s lives all over the archipelago,” Roxas said.

He said the DoTC sought to uplift the lives of the 30 million people in the Philippines still living below the official poverty line. Most of them, Roxas said, were living in conflict-ravaged areas in Mindanao.

He noted that one of the key infrastructure projects under the program was the construction of the Laguindingan airport, which was expected to support agricultural development in Mindanao.

“It will serve as the main airport of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities in northern Mindanao, and a counterpart of the Davao International Airport in Southern Mindanao,” he said.

The Laguindingan airport is expected to help boost Mindanao’s potential as a national food basket, as well as a producer of the country’s major agricultural exports such as banana and coconut.

He said the DoTC would prioritize the development of new seaports and the improvement of existing ones in Mindanao.

Roxas said that with better, strategically located ports, more agricultural producers could expand the market for their products.