Creation of Bangsamoro Economic Zone Authority pushed

COTABATO CITY - A Member of the Bangsamoro Parliament has filed a bill that aims at promoting and accelerating economic development in the region through the creation of a regional ecozone agency. 

Former journalist and now Member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority Amir Mawallil, filed Parliament Bill No. 129, otherwise known as the Bangsamoro Economic Zone Act of 2021 which seeks to create the Bangsamoro Economic Zone Authority or the BEZA. 

According to the bill, the creation of the BEZA will generate jobs, especially in the rural areas, increase their productivity and their individual and family income, and ultimately to improve the level and quality of their living condition.

In particular, the bill intends to promote the flow of investors into the region, which would then generate employment opportunities for the Bangsamoro people and ensure that products unique to the region gain considerable access to the domestic and global markets.

Under Article XIII, Section 28 of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) that created the BARMM covering “Economic Zones, Industrial Estates, and Free Ports,” the Bangsamoro Government “may establish economic zones, industrial estates, and free ports in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, including the establishment of a Bangsamoro Economic Zone Authority which shall have similar powers as those of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. The Parliament may provide such additional powers and functions to the Bangsamoro Economic Zone Authority as may be necessary to meet the special circumstances of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region.”

That same provision of the BOL states that, "Once the Bangsamoro Economic Zone Authority is created, the Philippine Economic Zone Authority shall no longer create any other economic zone within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region."

The proposed bill specifies that the economic zones that will be established shall be developed into decentralized, self-reliant, and sustainable agro-industrial and commercial investment centers, which shall be operated and treated as a separate customs territory.

Once created, these Bangsamoro Economic Zones, which will be developed in different key areas across the region, will assist the Bangsamoro Government to entice international markets, as well as local and foreign investors to take notice of the resources and investment desirability of the BARMM.

It will also facilitate the marketing and export of goods and services produced by several industries. In fact, the emerging global and regional opportunities for Halal and Islamic finance, as well as the strong support of President Duterte’s administration to peace and development promises well for the region’s socioeconomic development, through the creation of the BEZA.

The BEZA Act is likewise consistent with the development thrusts of the national government and sustainable development goals, as well as the 12-point priority agenda of the Bangsamoro Government which includes the activation of job-generating industries and the exploration of the economic potentials of the Bangsamoro.

Mawallil is confident and optimistic that the passage of the BEZA Act will capitalize on the rich natural resources that BARMM has, in addition to several comparative advantages that can be utilized to improve the current state of the region, its government, and its people.

The bill is supported and co-sponsored by other Members of the Bangsamoro Parliament: Laisa Alamia, Baintan Ampatuan, Suharto Ambolodto, Don Mustapha Loong, Rasol Mitmug Jr, Abraham Burahan, and Dimple Mastura. 

Despite the limited time for the transition, MP Mawallil believes that it is still incumbent upon the regional government to deliver the needed reforms and services through the establishment of necessary structures, systems and processes and enactment of key legislation and other deliverables as contained in the Bangsamoro Organic Law.