MOLE wants fuel depots back in Maguindanao
BANGSAMORO NEWS UPDATES • 15:15 PM Fri Oct 22, 2021
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By:
John M. Unson
Bangsamoro Labor Minister Romeo Sema is the key proponent of Resolution 552. (File photo from MOLE-BARMM)
COTABATO CITY --- The Bangsamoro labor minister has called on their regional parliament to focus on setting up depots in Maguindanao, where prices of petroleum are high due to the absence of such facilities.
Labor Minister Romeo Sema of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao filed at the BARMM parliament this week resolution 552 urging the regional government, stakeholders and the local communities to address the problem together.
Prices of diesel and gasoline in Cotabato City and nearby towns in Maguindanao are from P2 to P3 higher per liter than those sold in cities and provinces outside of the Bangsamoro region where there are seaside depots.
Fuel depots in Parang town in Maguindanao were shut by operators about 20 years ago due to security problems.
“This is a serious concern we need to address as a community,” Sema said Friday.
Sema, who is at the helm of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, or MOLE, is also a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, most known as the BARMM interim parliament.
Diesel and gasoline sold by retail stations in Cotabato City and in Maguindanao come from faraway depots outside of BARMM, brought in by lorry trucks.
“We need to connect to petroleum companies and potential capitalists who can put up depots in Maguindanao,” Sema said.
The Resolution 552 that he filed this week at the BARMM parliament calls for an extensive study and cross-section consultations on the viability of setting up depots in Maguindanao.
Local officials in what is now touted as Maguindanao’s most peaceful and markedly progressing seaside town, Datu Blah Sinsuat, immediately offered strategic sites where petroleum companies can put up depots.
“We have potential areas in Datu Blah Sinsuat that are feasible for fuel depots,” Mayor Marshall Sinsuat said Friday, after learning about Resolution 552.
Sema said he is certain that members of the Bangsamoro parliament and ministries that can help will cooperate with MOLE’s effort for Maguindanao to have new fuel depots. (John Felix Unson)