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DAVAO
CITY—The Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) said the
impact on business of the recent sporadic armed
skirmishes in the Lanao and Sarangani provinces could
not be immediately quantified but believes that it could
be minimal, “especially if government could continue
showing that it could respond appropriately and within
the limits of law and order.”
“The
impact on business and trading cannot be immediately
measured. But I think there’s not much impact because
the fighting was fairly recent,” Vicente Lao, president
of the MinBC, said.
At the
same time, amid calls from some sectors to arm
themselves to be able to defend themselves, Lao stressed
that the government “is responding quite well, and I
think there should be no need for businessmen in areas
near the conflict to arm themselves.”
The
MinBC covers a membership of more than 40 business
chambers in the cities and provincial capitals of
Mindanao, and also includes affiliations of the industry
associations in mining, trading, fishing and forestry.
“So far,
our members have not reported any abrupt changes in
their trading activities, and none of our suppliers and
partners outside Mindanao have called us to inquire on
the situation,” Lao told the BusinessMirror on Monday at
the Marco Polo Hotel here.
The
MinBC organized here a dialogue among members of the
government negotiating panel, local government
executives and business leaders from many parts of
Mindanao to inform mainly the business sector on the
details of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral
domain between the government and the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF).
The
business leaders in Mindanao have been seeking
government assurance that it remains on top of the
situation after incidents of violence broke out early
this week.
On
Sunday morning in Molundo town, Lanao del Sur, seven
soldiers and government militiamen were killed in an
ambush by armed men, but the MILF denied it was their
unit. That night, in Iligan City, four persons were
injured in two explosions at two travellers’ inns.
In
Kolambugan town, Lanao del Norte, passengers of buses
were abducted and armed followers of a local MILF unit
attacked two other towns. In Maasim, Sarangani, alleged
MILF guerrillas killed two persons while they also fired
at a police station and ransacked a pawnshop and stalls
in a public market.
“Business have wanted to be clarified on these incidents
and when the MILF has told government that it has no
control over these rogue groups, I believe the
government has treated these incidents as terroristic
and mere banditry and, therefore, responding to them
within the legal limits,” Lao told a business forum at
the MediSpa Clinic at the SM City Mall.
Streamers urging local residents to arm themselves
sprouted in many interior towns of North Cotabato last
week after the surge of fighting in the western part of
the province since July.
Vice
Gov. Emmanuel Piñol said he would not condone the call
to arms among the populace but warned the national
government, “that at situations like this, no one can
prevent them from arming themselves to protect their
communities.”
Lao has
also recommended that government ought “to put up now
proactive programs to prevent these kinds of occurrences
[that] disturb the routine activities in Mindanao.”
“These
may be expensive, though, and require more massive
cooperation from both the armed forces and the police,
and the civilians and that includes us, businessmen,” he
said.
He said
the programs would involve “strict frisking of people at
checkpoints, aggressive aerial and land surveillance to
detect movements of armed men.”
“Businessmen can be tapped here to provide information,”
he said.But while the government responds militarily to
the incidents, Lao suggested it should not abandon the
quest for peace through negotiations.
This
suggestion was joined in by a call from groups like the
Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (InPeace Mindanao),
which asked the government “not to resort to all-out
offensives in Central and Northern Mindanao in response
to alleged MILF attacks.” |
