Zamboanga Peninsula businessmen have approved a resolution urging the national government to “fully engage the business sector in the quest for a lasting and genuine peace for Mindanao by appointing representatives from the Zamboanga Peninsula’s business sector to actively participate in the peace process”.

This resolution was one of the 3 measures approved during the 6th Zambopen Business Conference held in this city August 26-28 and submitted to President Aquino through his representative Tourism Secretary Albert Lim, Friday, August 27.

Cholo Soliven, president of the Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc., the host of the business confab, took the podium to present the three resolutions to Sec. Lim with the request that the proposals be given utmost attention.

Signed by the presidents of the different Chambers in the region, resolution number 2 emphasized that “while Zamboanga Peninsula is generally peaceful, it has, time and again, been plunged to crisis due to the constant and incessant demands of the parties to the peace process to include the region in its entirety, or parts of it, in efforts to either expand an existing autonomous region or be included as an integral part of a new and expanded homeland for a specific segment of Filipino society”.

The resolution stressed that the business community is the first victim of these resulting crises which drive away tourists and investors thereby resulting in the loss of business opportunities in the region. It said that questions of ancestral domain claims and similar demands likewise endanger the security of current and future investments in the region, especially in the agriculture sector.

The business community, the resolution further said has to be “adequately represented in the peace process and at the same time to contribute to the same by voicing out the reservations and objections of the business sector”. “This will prevent the recurrence of deals done on the sly and surreptitiously agreed upon with neither the knowledge nor the consent of the people, most especially the business sector, whose properties and interests are the first to be affected in any peace deals and agreements involving such issues as ancestral domain, land tenure and legal systems governing these”.

The business sector urged the national government to continuously work for the “intense preservation of peace and order in the region and address any pockets of terror and criminality by enjoining the PNP to intensify its campaign against the proliferation of these elements”.

The resolution also emphasized that the media should be persuaded to “contribute to the advancement of growth and development of Zamboanga Peninsula by refraining from sensationalizing issues on peace and order as well as by correctly ascribing the specific locations where such isolated incidents occur – even in their datelines - which has given a negative impression to the people, particularly the tourists and investors”.

Aside from President Aquino, copies of the resolution are also furnished to the Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Office of the Presidential Assistant to the Peace Process, the Head of the GRP Negotiating Panel, all Local Government Units in the the Zamboanga Peninsula Region, the Philippine National Police, all national and local media entities, and other concerned agencies for information and appropriate action.

The resolution was signed by Soliven, Edgar Bagarinao (chairman of the Zampen Business Council and PCCI Regional governor for Western Mindanao and ARMM), Ozamis City Chamber president Dominador Elemento, Dipolog Chamber president Michal Malacca, Pagadian Chamber president Mercedes Quisumbing, Misamis Occidental Chamber president Eric Avila, Basilan Chamber president Efren New, Ipil-Sibugal Chamber president Roseller Briones, Sulu Chamber president Luis Go Jr., Tawi-tawi Chamber president Engr. Robert Tan and the Dapitan City Chamber president.

The two other resolutions approved and submitted to the office of the president were a resolution urging the national government to solve the energy crisis in Mindanao with utmost urgency and efficacy through any available and practicable means at its disposal and a resolution urging the national government to urgently assist in improving the competitiveness of the products and services of Zambopen’s business sector by the strict regulation of freight and transportation costs both for inter-island as well as intra-regional routes.

The business conference was attended by some 300 businessmen representing different industries in the region and the neighboring cities and provinces and was also graced by Mayor Celso Lobregat, Congresspersons Beng Climaco and Erbie Fabian, Tourism undersecretary Simeon Marfori, National Competitiveness Center director Ruy Moreno, Trade and Industry Regional Director Nazrullah Manzur and several others.