Tambunan, Maguindanao—This village along the old Cotabato national highway is rising from its dark past, even as leaders commit to its development into a potential midway terminal-market hub.
In a memorandum of agreement with the local government unit, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) will build an integrated terminal here, starting in early 2022 to cater to buses and other public-utility vehicles serving the route to and from southern Mindanao and this province.
A town has since been created out of Tambunan, and is named after then Deputy Governor of Cotabato Empire Province, Datu Mama sa Guindolongan Midtimbang who was assassinated in 1968.
BARMM Interior and Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo said the project also formed part of a local development package committed by the Bangsamoro leadership, under Chief Minister Ahod Balwag Al-Hadj Murad Ebrahim for the development of the region.
Datu Guindolongan Mayor Midpantao Midtimbang Jr. noted that the proposed integrated terminal in his town will be the first to be established in a majority Muslim-populated locality in Central Mindanao.
Sinarimbo signed the MOA with Mayor Midtimbang for the construction of the terminal building with diversion lanes and bus bay slots, as well as other designated areas for PUV terminal.Sinarimbo said the proposed integrated terminal could also generate employment and other economic activities in small-scale production and sell of native products
It will also be slotted with stalls for stopover shops, including treats of native coffee-cups to promote local delicacies as well for tourism development.
Following the 1968 assassination, this section of the Cotabato Highway became a “hotspot” to after-sunset road travelers until the early
1970s.
The locals, however, have eventually embraced peace and halted retaliatory attacks among kindred, opting instead to send their young generations to school to earn high levels of education.
“We signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Mayor of Guindulungan, Hon. Midpantao M. Midtimbag, Jr. for the construction of an Integrated Public Terminal along the Cotabato-GenSan road of his municipality. The public terminal will feature amenities for passengers such as pasalubong and coffee shops, public toilets and bath and comfortable waiting area for passengers. While it is modern and convenient, it will still carry the distinctive heritage of our region and its people,” Sinarimbo said.
Sinarimbo added: “I have always known Tambunan as a marketplace of goods. We will help Tambunan regain its old glory by becoming once again a vibrant marketplace. Though, this time around, it will not only be a marketplace of goods, but of ideas as well—and not just
ideas but good ideas on such issues as good governance and moral governance.”