The Opportune Time to Create Prosperity and Peace in Mindanao
The recent political event in Mindanao has made the country notice our supposedly “Land of Promise”—an island that is still often forgotten. I’m referring to the first parliamentary elections held in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) last Sept. 14, 2026, which marked a major milestone in the Bangsamoro peace process. Eighty members of the Bangsamoro Parliament were elected for the first time. The new Parliament will assume office on Oct. 30, with the election of the chief minister among its first major tasks.
It must be stressed that the initiation of regional autonomy is not enough to create peace among our Muslim brothers. They need to see themselves as equally competitive in socioeconomic development compared with the other regions of Mindanao. This is because underdevelopment leaves human capital stagnant, and economic disparities can deepen social factionalism, as seen in the current Bangsamoro Parliament, which requires the building of stable coalitions.
Although BARMM has shown improvement in recent years with a growth rate of 5.0 percent in 2025, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, its gross regional domestic product in 2025 still sits at around P72,453—lower than the national average of over P215,000. These figures indicate that Western Mindanao still stands at a crossroads, while Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao, and Eastern Mindanao have transitioned to high-growth economic hubs.
According to the Mindanao Humanitarian Team Contingency Plan, Western Mindanao has the following structural deficits that need to be addressed posthaste: food insecurity impacting 38 percent of households (vs 15 percent nationally); child stunting at a nationally high rate of 34.3 percent; and lack of access to internet and sanitation infrastructure among two-thirds of families.
While the other three regions have neutralized major domestic insurgencies and have focused their attention on cross-regional transport corridors and commercial infrastructure, Western Mindanao is still managing political risks. The country cannot afford to experience again those harrowing conflicts, such as the Zamboanga siege in 2013, the Mamasapano encounter in 2015, and the Marawi siege in 2017.
Western Mindanao is still reliant on raw agricultural production, fisheries, and government social work spending. The region needs to be developed into the center of sustainable agri-fishing industries in the Philippines, i.e., shifting from exporting raw resources to localized agro-fishery processing that will transform its 89,000 hectares of idle grasslands and vast artisanal blue economy into productive and export-oriented areas. Incidentally, the government has yet to seriously explore the natural gas deposits in Liguasan Marsh that can possibly address Mindanao’s acute power needs.
The economic growth of Western Mindanao can be catalyzed by Zamboanga Peninsula and Zamboanga City, which both act as the economic engines for the whole geographical grouping. Zamboanga City, which plans itself as the gateway to the Asean, is the dominant commercial and industrial hub, and its expansion in the logistics and infrastructure sectors directly boosts the raw agricultural and fishery markets of neighboring BARMM provinces. Increased investments in the Zamboanga City Economic Zones create jobs that can absorb employment seekers from the BARMM. The BARMM also provides social and economic support to Muslim communities in the Zamboanga Peninsula.
However, ensuring the creation of sustained prosperity in Western Mindanao needs substantial funds and full administrative support from the national government. It may be observed that the other three regional groupings in Mindanao have influential leaders who can induce the channeling of national funds into their respective bailiwicks while Western Mindanao is lacking in these political influencers. Thus, in the current national budget allocations, the national leadership should intervene by channeling more funding into vital ongoing and proposed projects in the region.
MELITON B. JUANICO,
