Development Aggression for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part I: The ARMM Blows Smoke About Record Breaking Investments for FIY 2011, Telling the Usual Lies

As I had predicted- well "predicted" isn't necessarily the most apt word since I knew- President Aquino formally had former Congressman Mujiv Hataman as the OIC (Officer in Charge, as in "Appointed") Governor of the ARMM, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. I will get to that in my upcoming third and final entry on the Mujiv Hataman saga. Meanwhile, Ishak "Cocoy" Veloso Mastura, Chairman of the ARMM Regional Board of Investments has stuck his foot deep into his mouth with the just announced claim that 2011 has been a record breaking year for private investment within the ARMM. According to Mastura, there was not only a record breaking injection of capital, but investors outdid all previous years by nearly 400%. Fantastic, right? Let's examine the claim;

Ishak Mastura correctly notes that in 2011, from January 1st up until December 15th, the region saw P1,656.24 Billion, that IS Billion, you read correctly. Now, in 2010, it is ALSO true that the ARMM merely saw P91 Million. So, so far so good, neigh, perfect. Let us see just what caused this massive (nearly) 400% increase; a grand total of THREE investments:

1) EA Trilink Corporation, in the Second Quarter, landed a telecom franchise for the entire ARMM worth, and this is what is all boils down to, P1.5 Billion. Wow, great, but how did this company land it? EA Trilink is a private corporation CREATED BY the ARMM during the tenure of Governor Nur Misuari, the MNLF Chairman handed the keys to the autonomous kingdom by then-President Ramos as a way in which to seduce Misuari into signing Jakarta 1996, the mis-named Final Peace Agreement that still hasn't been implemented. The "company" was liscenced by the ARMM, becoming its sole franchisee long before cellular service even came to Manila. Setting up a small office in the ARMM Capital Complex in Cotabato City, it began funneling cash to various money laundering schemes.

Today this company has a grand total of eight employees, including office staff in Makati where Doctor Alfredo Panizales beguiles foreign visitors. Serving as CEO AND President, he is wise enough to have a token Muslim, Datu Hadji Nasser D.Sampaco as "Chairman." The company only landed it first deal in 2008 but since then has become a huge blackhole. Its course du jour is a plan to create 2,000 electronic kiosks in thirty ARMM municipalities. Using a sattelite hub in Cebu City, signals will be fed into a main centre in each of the five main ARMM provinces. So far, this involves ZERO employment opportunities. The company is bragging that it will create 6,000 long term jobs within the ARMM. How? It will hire three people for each of the kiosks. At two thousand kiosks times three employees, there will be six thousand jobs.

These kiosks will provide telephone, email, and internet services, with one employee for every eight hour shift. Forget that the Central Governments placement of these kiosks in 60% of all Philippine municipalities has so far been a resounding failure- how could it not be in a nation awash with cybercafes and the highest per capita usage of cellphones IN THE WORLD-what counts to Ishak "Cocoy" Mastura is the bottom line, P1.5 Billion. What Mastura doesn't say however, is that the entire sum comes from Government coffers. Granted, most of that will by NGO and Foreign Aid monies BUT, how can you brag about "private investment" when it is entirely Government generated? It is an intellectual shell game, Economics 101 for scam artists. Of course Ishak happens to be the son of MILF Peace Panelist Datu Michael Ong Mastura, and so one then calms down and realises that poor little Ishak is probably as clueless as the people he aims to swindle.

Ishak, ironically, began his career as Andal Ampatuan Sr's legal lapdog before joining the Manila firm of Siguion and Reina. Not able to keep up with his caseload he asked Bapa Andal for another handout and was placed at the beck and call of Andal's son, Zaldy, then the Governor of the ARMM. Before long, Ishak became Chairman of the Regional Board of Investments...and...voila.



2) Matling Industrial and Commercial Corporation, in the Third Quarter, announced that it was building a biomass electrical generation sub-station at their main cassava starch facility in the municipality of Malabang, in Lanao del Sur Province. The project, pegged at P23.90 Million will use dried cassava/rhiozome chips to power a steam turbine generator, utilising a good many advances made with regard to cassava as a biomass source. They already have a 1,500MW hydroelectric facility on the Matling River, the waterway upon which the company is centered.

As much as I would like to rip into the project, the company being notorious for shi**ing all over its employees (refer to two cases, former Financial Director Ricardo R.Coros and former Executive Vice President Armando T.de Rossi, just as examples- and they are at the top of the pyramid), I can't really frown because it is a self-centered project taking place on property owned by the company since the 1930s. Unlike the two other projects being discussed, this one is on the up and up. Ergo, chock up P23.90 Million as ACTUAL investment, although, since it is entirely internal, it isn't going to help the ARMM in any real manner.

3) Agumil Philippines Incorporated, a multi-national consortium building the latest addition to its burgeoning palm oil empire on the Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat Provincial borders, is earmarking P132 Million for the Fourth Quarter, to construct a palm oil processing refinery on a 20 hectare tract in the municipality of Buluan, in Maguindanao Province. Buluan of course is the seat of power of Maguindanao Governor, Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu. Toto, and his clan paramilitary, the Buayan sa Lanao (Crocodiles of the Lake, the "Lake" being Lake Bualan) have been at the centre of the project.

In Second and Third Quarter of 2011 "MILF Armed Contact" entries I described the shooting war between the Buayan sa Lanao and the BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces as the MILF's armed wing is known. That conflict, which has been ongoing for years, revolves around the Mangudadatu Clan snatching up parcels of land, often by force, to end up on the right side of the Aguimil venture. The company, dominated by a Maylasian-Singaporean consortium holding 40% outright and most of the rest through Philippine registered shell companies, is, like so many agrobiz multi-nationals, contracting with local landholders to gain a targetted 9,000 hectare presence on that Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat Provincial border. The municipality of Buluan sits directly on that border. On the other side, Sultan Kudarat Province is also controlled by the Mangudadatu Clan, with Governor "Toto's" first cousin, Datu Suharto "Deng" Mangudadatu, sitting as Governor. The municipality of Colombio is being primed for 6,000 hectares in the project. In both Buluan and Colombio it is the Mangudadatu Clan, backed by the Buayan, who controls the vast majority of the tracts.

The refinery is being built because, until now, there are only four such refineries in existence:

1) Kenram Industrial Development Incorporated, in the town of Isulan, the capital of Sultan Kudarat Province

2) Filipina Palm Oil Processing Incorporated- Caraga Oil Refining Incorporated (FPPI-COPI), Agusan del Sur Province, in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur Province, the processor at what used to be known as Guthrie Plantation cum Guthrie Estates

3) ABERDI in Bukidnon Province

4) Agumil, in Trento, in Agusan del Sur Province


The Agumil operation utilises its own refinery, in, Agusan del Sur, a long haul of 9 hours over roads that are often impassable. However, until the project obtained at least 2,000 hectares it didn't pay to build a refinery closer to Maguindanao Province. Instead, it sank its capital into the parallel operation in the municipality of Brooke's Point, on Palawan and bided its time until it had aquired the targetted amount of land. The fact that the entire amount invested for the project goes towards enriching the Mangudadatu Clan, who of course will be constructing it as well as staffing it renders this project as well, a ZERO investment into the community, into labour pool, and into the Local Government Unit.

In fact, none of these projects offer true investments. Matling is building a powerplant for its own cassava factory, utilising a foreign consulting firm and a foreign construction firm. Agumil is building a dedicated mill to serve its own plantations, on land owned by the Mangudadatus, by a firm owned by the same clan, to service contact acerage owned by them as well. Finally, the EA Trilink "bonanza" is being paid for by Manila- IF it even materielises. Uh, thanks Ishak Mastura, for illustrating everything that's wrong with the ARMM.