Cotabato City LGU setting up landmark 'aqua park'

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January 17, 2026 | 4:54pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The local government unit of Cotabato City is constructing an “aqua park” inside its five-hectare People’s Palace compound as an educational site for local residents and outsiders.

Cotabato City, which has 37 barangays, is surrounded by swamps and crisscrossed by rivers that connect to Central Mindanao’s 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta, source of freshwater fishes sold in towns and cities in the region.

Cotabato City Mayor Bruce Matabalao, division chiefs under him and members of the Sangguniang Panglungsod launched the aqua park project on Friday.

Matabalao, whose office has projects meant to restore historical sites around to boost tourism, commerce and trade, then told reporters that the Cotabato City LGU has allocated P10.6 million for the setting up of an aqua park close to the People’s Palace.

“This project is long overdue, but we shall have this done, in the premises of the People’s Palace, as part of a cross-section effort to fully develop the city as a tourism hub,” he said.

The People’s Palace, located southwest of Cotabato City, is the operations center of Cotabato City’s LGU, only more than a kilometer away from the regional capitol of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Its location, known before as the lowland Malagapas, was a historic convergence area of Moro warriors who fought the Spaniards, the American and Japanese forces that invaded strategic spots in what is now known as Cotabato City.

Cotabato City is also geographically known as Kutawato, or stone fort, referring to the limestone hill in its center, overlooking the marshes and rivers around and its southwestern seacoast.