COTABATO CITY —   An energy company is  pouring in  PhP471 million in investment  to the  Autonomous  Region in Muslim  Mindanao.

This, according to the Regional Board of Investment (RBOI),   is despite the uncertainty of the passage  of the  Bangsamoro  Basic Law (BBL) by the  Philippine Congress.

RBOI-ARMM  in its  meeting last Wednesday  in Cotabato  City   has provisionally  approved  the registration of the investment of  Southsea Industrial  Energy Corporation amounting to  US $10 (PhP471 M).

Southsea Industrial  Energy Corp. will put up  a mini-oil refinery and  storage depots in Tubig-Indangan, Simunul, Tawi-Tawi.  

Since Southsea,  a 100% Filipino-owned company, will put up the first of its kind mini oil-refinery in the country using a new and innovative technology from South Korea, with the assistance of a South Korean technical partner, the board provisionally approved the project pending the release of the endorsement of the project by the Department of Energy by the end of the month.  

It is expected to start commercial operations in the last quarter of 2017 and will provide 100 jobs.

Earlier, there were fears raised by investors in the ARMM, particularly through the Promotion of Investment Sustainability Organization (PISO) in the ARMM that the draft BBL, which has been substituted in both houses of Congress with the draft Basic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BLBAR), had been watered-down making the region less autonomous than under the ARMM Organic Act.

PISO lead convener Edgar Bullecer, who belongs to the growing banana export industry in the ARMM, said that if the draft BLBAR, which provides less powers than the ARMM Organic Act, is passed, it will surely discourage and unsettle investors and affect the ease of doing business in the region as the investment rules will be changed by the BLBAR so that the power to issue permits and approvals for projects, which the ARMM already enjoys, will revert back to the central government.  

Per PISO’s independent evaluation of the draft BLBAR, particularly the House of Representative version, it will also take away "vested rights" already being enjoyed by investors in the ARMM, such as the fiscal and non-fiscal incentives issued by the RBOI.

For his part, ARMM Regional Governor Mujiv Hataman said that with the registration of Southsea, the private sector investment in the ARMM has reached a total investment of PhP 6.5 billion this year. This figure is the highest ever recorded in the 26-year history of the ARMM.   

In 2015, RBOI has recorded an increase of 70% in the total value of investments as compared to last year’s Php 3.867 billion.  

Likewise, a total of 4,894 jobs, which is 43% higher as compared to last year’s 3,433 jobs, were created this year.  

“This means that even with the delay in the passage of a BBL faithful to the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace process will continue to bring stability to the region since both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are committed to the full implementation of the CAB”, Hataman added.