Bangsamoro region draws 2 investments worth P130-M Gov’t urged to rethink RCEP due to threats to industries

Several groups on Monday urged the government to rethink the ratification of the country’s participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) due to threats to local industries and potential income losses.

RCEP is a free trade deal among 14 other nations including ASEAN member states and its partners China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Sonny Africa, the Executive Director of the independent think tank IBON Foundation, said the country has not benefitted on any of the past trade agreements that promised more investments and better jobs for the Filipinos.

He said the government was downplaying the lower tariff revenues and failed to see that the country is poised to lose roughly $58.2 million in revenues due to RCEP concessions, he added.

Twonew businesses worth about P130 million were accredited by the Bangsamoro Board of Investments (BBOI), the agency revealed Tuesday.

structure, energy, tourism and halal industry, among others.

lion for the project seen to generate about 100 jobs.

“Mahaba na ang karanasan natin sa free trade agreements. Maraming marami ang naipangako, pero marami rin ang napako,” he said during a people’s forum organized in UP Diliman.

Some free trade agreements, he said could lead to trade deficit and “worsening” food import dependency.

“Oo lumalaki ang kalakaran ng exports, pero mas malaki ang iniimport natin,” he said.

Former Agrarian Reform Secretary and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMU) Chairman Emeritus Rafael Mariano said Filipino farmers would suffer income losses due to the expected increase in the imports of agricultural products.

He also said local products are not competitive in the bigger export market.

“Hindi na maiiwan ang agrikultura kasi matagal nang naiwan iyan. Wala ring kasiguraduhan na

FGOV’T, P10

Mohammad Pasigan, BBOI chair, identified the newly-approved investments as M & R Layer Poultry Farm in Sultan Mastura, Maguindanao del Norte and the Timako Seafood Resto in Cotabato City.

Pasigan invited more investors to pour capital in the BARMM, which is composed of the provinces of Maguindanao del Sur,

Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Marawi, Lamitan and Cotabato, and 63 villages in North Cotabato known as the Special Geographic Area.

He said their promotion is anchored on the region’s Strategic Investment Priorities Plan (SIPP), which covers agriculture, fisheries, infra-

“BBOI will exert more efforts in promoting (the region’s) investment (potentials) by conducting BARMM – wide SIPP consultations and will even go out of its way to attract investors through business coaching and investment facilitation,” Pasigan said in a statement.

M & R Layer Poultry Farm, which is engaged in the production of halal eggs in Barangay (village) Buliok, invested P107 mil-

“This is the second approved investment of the BBOI focusing on the halal industry. BARMM is now in the process of developing and promoting halal industries as a mode of achieving equity and justice among our farmers and producers, and increasing employment opportunities for the domestic labor force,” said Trade Minister Abu Amri Taddik, an ex-officio member of the BBOI.