CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 30 June) — The opening of Panguil Bay Bridge last year is among the factors behind the 6% economic growth in Northern Mindanao in 2024, surpassing the 5.2 percent expansion in 2023.
The Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev; formerly National Economic Development Authority) in region 10 said the regional economy outpaced the national average growth of 5.7 percent, buoyed by the opening of Panguil Bay bridge and strong performances in trade, manufacturing, agriculture and construction.
“Our per capita output crossed the P200,00 mark, the third highest and sixth fastest growing economy in the country,” outgoing Regional Development Council (RDC) chair Imelda Quibranza-Dimaporo said in her State of the Region Address (SORA) last week. The former governor of Lanao del Sur has been elected as Representative of the province’s first district to Congress.
Dimaporo said these are not mere statistics as more than 13,000 individuals have been lifted from poverty according to statistics provided by the regional Department of Social Welfare and Development.
In her final SORA as RDC chair, Dimaporo said Northern Mindanao or Region 10 has grown into a trillion-peso economy with industry doubling its growth and tourism coming back, creating 187,000 jobs regionwide.
Dimaporo noted that because of the opening of the Panguil Bay Bridge in Tubod, Lanao del Norte and Tangub, Misamis Occidental, the value of land has spiked to P15,000 to P20,000 per square meter from P5,000 per square meter before the bridge was built, raising fears that much-needed irrigated rice lands will be converted into commercial use.
“We are now looking to local legislation to stop the conversion of agricultural land to commercial and real estate projects,” she said.
The 3.2 kilometer Panguil Bay bridge, the longest water-spanning structure in the region, connects Misamis Occidental and Lanao del Norte. It was inaugurated by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on September 27, 2024.
DEPDev Region 10 Director Mylah Faye Aurora Cariño said the region is second in overall agricultural production with P155.28 billion in crops and fisheries.
“Our inflation rate remain at 3.7 percent stabilizing family household food budgets,” Cariño said.
She said the expansion and upgrading of the Laguindingan airport, dubbed the “Golden gateway to Mindanao,” is on schedule as reported by its operator Aboitiz InfraCapital.
MindaNews reported Aboitiz InfraCapital had earlier said Laguindingan Airport is now capable of handling 337 flights a week. Laguindingan is considered the first successful airport public-private partnership project under the Marcos Administration.
Dimaporo said that despite the robust economy of Northern Mindanao, there are challenges ahead that can affect its growth, including external factors like an escalation of the Iran and Israel war and US President Donald Trump’s deportation pledge on undocumented immigrants.
She said undocumented Filipino immigrants in the US who would be affected by Trump’s deportation order would come home without available jobs or compete with the local labor sector.
Cariño said these are the challenges they would take up during the next Regional Development Council planning session sometime in October. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)