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.