Economic plan for Mindanao

Economic plan for Mindanao

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuter): President Fidel Ramos yesterday launched a 15-year development plan for the Philippines' most politically volatile region but said it had little chance of success unless Moslem extremism was curbed.

Ramos lambasted the Moslem extremist guerrilla group Abu Sayyaf for seeking to drive a wedge between Filipino Christians and Moslems on southern Mindanao island and for its "campaign of violence to fragment the Republic of the Philippines itself".

"Everyone who lives in...Mindanao must do his or her share to make sure that development is not jeopardized by security threats or political instability," he said at a Zamboanga city peace summit of Christian and Moslem leaders.

"No matter how many roads and bridges we build, investors, businessmen and tourists will not be attracted to any place where there is a peace and order problem."

Ramos unveiled a development plan for the region that would build up the region's infrastructure, modernize fish processing and establish production and processing centers for crops and livestock.

The meeting was spurred by the massacre of 53 people by Moslem guerrillas in an April 4 attack on the largely Christian town of Ipil, near Zamboanga.

Mindanao, 800 kilometers south of Manila, is regarded by the five million-member Filipino Moslem minority as their ancestral home and is one of the country's poorest regions.

Efforts to develop the region have failed because of armed conflicts, banditry and corruption among politicians.

Ramos has given top support to economic projects on Mindanao, which is part of the East Asian Growth Area (EAGA), a proposed development zone comprising backward areas of Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and oil-rich Brunei.

The government is holding peace negotiations with the mainstream Moro National Liberation Front but breakaway rebel factions have opposed the talks.