COTABATO CITY (Saturday, August 30, 2025) — Merchants are optimistic of improvements soon in the investment climate in Bangsamoro towns in Central Mindanao and in this City now that provincial governors in the region are cooperating in regional security and economic programs.

Officials of the influential Bangsamoro Business Council (BBC) told reporters on Saturday, August 30, that it is easy for Gov. Tucao Mastura of Maguindanao del Norte, his counterpart in Maguindanao del Sur, Ali Midtimbang, and Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao to plan out common socio-economic projects since they all belong to the United Bangsamoro Justice Party.

“Political solidarity among Moro leaders is very important, a vital force that can boost the investment climate anywhere in the Bangsamoro region,” BBC’s chairman, the entrepreneur-lawyer Ronald Hallid Torres, said.

Most of the mayors in Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur also belong to the UBJP, whose political objectives include the promotion of cultural and religious solidarity among the Muslims, Christians and non-Moro indigenous people in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Marshall Sinsuat and Hisham Nando, vice governors of Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, respectively, are also members of the UBJP.

Mohammad Pasigan, chairman of the Bangsamoro Regional Board of Investments, said investors in other regions and abroad would first check the political relationship of local executives before deciding to venture into capital-intensive projects in the autonomous region.

“Now, for the first time ever, we have governors in two Bangsamoro provinces in mainland Mindanao and a mayor in Cotabato City, which is the capital of the Bangsamoro region, who are political allies,” said Pasigan, whose office is the conduit of the BARMM government to local and foreign investors.

BARMM’s labor minister, Muslimin Sema, said two governors of provinces in Administrative Region 12 that are near Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur, Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza of Cotabato and Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr. of South Cotabato, are also staunch supporters of the development initiatives of the BARMM government.

“These two governors are not hostile to Moro communities and that is very important for us because their provinces, both booming in terms of businesses, are just beside Maguindanao del Norte and Maguindanao del Sur,” Sema, chairman of the central committee of the Moro National Liberation Front, said.

Sema said it would be easier for traders in Cotabato City, in Maguindanao del Norte and in Maguindanao del Sur to build linkages with the business sectors in Cotabato and in South Cotabato provinces through the offices of Mendoza and Tamayo, who is chairman of the inter-agency Regional Peace and Order Council 12.

Sema said the two non-Moro governors are close to members of the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in their predominantly-Christian provinces.

Mohammad Kelly Antao, a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, said Taliño-Mendoza’s office continued its socio-economic programs in the 63 Bangsamoro barangays that originally belonged to towns under her administration, but got grouped together as the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area after residents voted in favor of the inclusion of their domains into BARMM’s territory via a referendum in 2019.

“She doesn’t even have to help us anymore in fostering peace in those barangays for investors to come in because those areas are no longer part of her province,” Antao said, referring to Taliño-Mendoza.

Antao said the office of Taliño-Mendoza, chairperson of the influential Regional Development Council 12, is also helping them, the military and the police maintain law and order in the 63 Bangsamoro barangays.

“That is something that we need in creating a good business atmosphere in the Bangsamoro Special Geographic Area in Cotabato province,” Antao said.

Photo shows the political allies Matabalao (middle) Mastura (right) and Midtimbang together in recent peace and governance dialogue in Cotabato City.