Banana plantation to rise around Maguindanao massacre site

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao - The area surrounding the site of the 2009 Maguindanao Massacre will soon be converted into a cavendish banana plantation, part of a bid to turn Ampatuan town into an agro-economic zone.
 
Land owners, the municipal government of Ampatuan, the provincial government of Maguindanao, Malaysia’s Univex, and its local counterpart Al Mujahidun Agro Resources Development Inc. (ARMADI) signed a memorandum of agreement on Friday.

With this development, the once barren land will soon become greener and will bustle with more economic activity with the multimillion-peso investment that the agreement will bring.

Aside from the banana plantation, the project will also put up a halal banana processing plant, a science and technology school, a hospital, a huge warehouse and playground, a mosque and other facilities.
 
The investors plan to initially open 6,000 hectares for the plantation with a capital of US$2,800.00 per hectare, and will offer priority employment preference for land owners.
 
“As a primary victim myself and now serving the province as their governor, we wanted the people to remember that we have no desire for bloody revenge [and] we are transforming the nightmare from that place," Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, guest speaker at the signing.
 
Ampatuan Mayor Rasul Sangki Jr., one of the witnesses to the massacre and whose clan owns most of the land that will be planted with bananas, said the project will change the image of their town.
 
“Our investors are Muslims too and they are generous that they decided to invest here, to bring hope to people...around 2000 new jobs are coming”, investor Gonzalo Ornadena, representing Malaysia's Univex, said.
 
Makmod Mending Jr., secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, described the joint venture as an “added boost” to the P2.4 billion in agricultural projects that the government has lined up for the region this year.  
 
Mending added that he learned that some of the lands covered by the project are owned by families of combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front.
 
He said, the venture complements governments efforts to bring members of the MILF into the mainstream. The MILF is set to sign a final peace agreement with the government on March 27. — Ferdinandh Cabrera/JDS, GMA News