A federal system of government is best suited for Mindanao, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said,  reiterating his Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino party stance.
“I submit that there is one feasible, reasonable, doable, constitutional solution to the war that has ravaged many parts of Mindanao for centuries: and that is the adoption of the federal system of government” Pimentel said in his keynote message before some 400 delegates to the 21st Mindanao Business Conference in Butuan City.
The conference was attended by local and foreign businessmen and political leaders.
Pimentel, however, admitted that promoting federal system cannot be done by a sectoral or segregated approach.
“Promoting a federal system as lumads, Moros and Christians is not what we need, what we need to advance our cause is that we will approach the Federal issue as a whole, as Filipinos,” he said in Visayan.
Pimentel claimed that now was the time or golden opportunity to put money for appropriate businesses in Mindanao.
He also said that despite Mindanao being the 19th largest island in the world and the second largest of the Philippines’ more than 7,000 islands and containing one-fourth of the national population and one-third of the land area, investments here in the past came in trickles.
Pimentel said Mindanao has become home to one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia.
“Because Mindanao is centrally located within Asia and the East Asean Growth Area, it is easily accessible by air, land, and sea transport” he said.
Mindanao has 38 seaports, four strategic container ports and 15 airports, two of which are international airports. It has a deep pool of skilled laborers from a population of more than 22 million.
Most of Mindanao is located outside the typhoon belt. It has abundant, available, fertile lands perfectly suited for agri-industrial development and is endowed with eight major river basins — Agusan, Tagoloan, Cagayan de Oro, Tagum-Libuganon, Davao, Buayan-Malungon, Agus and the Mindanao River — all of which could supply water for irrigation and other related needs.
Forty-four percent of food consumed in the Philippines comes from Mindanao.
Mindanao is also the country’s major producer of rubber, pineapple, banana and coffee.