Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Oledan: Marginalizing Mindanao
By Radzini Oledan
Slice Of Life
"Growth in Mindanao is concentrated only in a few areas, while the rest suffer the brunt of peace and order problems. There are communities with no access to safe drinking water, sanitary toilets and electricity."
CAN Mindanao stand on its own? If one considers the richly endowed island's vast potentials for economic growth, the answer is yes. Mindanao contributes 34 per cent of the country's total agricultural production, 44 per cent of domestic food trade, and 13 per cent of its total manufacturing output.
Its agricultural production is more than enough to satisfy the needs of its people. Currently, it supplies one-fourth of the country's rice and about two-thirds of its corn requirements.
With its agro-climatic environment for rice production, most of its irrigated areas can attain a rice yield of five tons per hectare, thereby ensuring food security of the whole country.
And yet sadly, Mindanao's agriculture production, its comparative advantage, is hampered by limited access to efficient product markets, appropriate technology and poor infrastructure support such as irrigation, roads and electrification.
No wonder almost 48 percent of families in Mindanao live below the poverty level, higher than the national average of 34.2 percent. The situation is most dismal in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao where more than 69 percent of the families are poor, followed by Region 12 where half of the families are poor.
Growth in Mindanao is concentrated only in a few areas, while the rest suffer the brunt of peace and order problems. There are communities with no access to safe drinking water, sanitary toilets and electricity.
Mindanao trails the other regions in access to electric power supply.
In 1997, the barangay electrification coverage was 79.4 percent in Luzon, 66.4 percent in the Visayas, and 53 per cent in Mindanao.
In terms of access to education, Mindanao had the lowest performance in both simple and functional literacy. Only 88 percent of the island's population 10 years old and over have the ability to read and write, compared to Luzon's literacy rate of 95 percent and Visayas' 92 percent.
The skewed priorities of the National Government have further marginalized Mindanao and its people. Considering its enormous contribution to the country's economy, it should be getting 34 percent share of the total national budget and not merely 21 percent.
Given a chance and support, Mindanao can truly stand on its own and set its own direction of development.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (June 28, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
