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STATE-OWNED Philippine Ports Authority has reduced its
budget for repair and maintenance this year, with most
of the projects scheduled to be pursued being shelved.
In a
report, the PPA said it slashed its budget to only P200
million from close to P500 million during the previous
years.
A big
portion of funding will go to those projects that the
PPA was not able to do last year, and only a handful
were “new projects,” the agency added.
“Only 24
repair projects may be pursued under this reduced budget
consisting of 13 carryover projects… and 11 new projects
for 2008. Seven of these carryover projects are under
way and six are under procurement stage,” the PPA said
in its report presented to the board.
It added
that, of the budget, some P161 million was earmarked for
routine maintenance of over a hundred ports nationwide.
The PPA
is faced with revenue decline since late 2006 as a
result of higher cost of fuel, and repair-and-
maintenance measures are just two of the most
significant expenses of the state firm every year.
Some of
its major routine maintenance work, such as the dredging
of heavily silted ports, were already given to the
private sector, but the PPA said it is also reviewing
the project with the possibility of further trimming it
down.
“This
year’s original dredging program, which covers 27
ports/areas, entails the removal of a total of 3.174
million cubic meters of silt and requires a budget of
over a half a billion pesos,” it said.
“The
[dredging] program is presently under review vis-a-vis
the capability of the authority to successfully complete
the component dredging projects.”
On the
other hand, the PPA has retained those projects that
were under contract with F.F. Cruz and Company Inc.
For the
first two months of the year, the company has completed
the dredging of Manila South Harbor Anchorage, Manila
North Harbor Inner Basin and Nasipit Port.
For the
period, F.F. Cruz has removed a total of 350,331 cubic
meters of silt in some piers in
North Harbor
and the yet-to-be-completed Masao Port.
The PPA
can generate as much as P4 billion a year from the ports
revenue and share from the cargo-handling charges of
private port operator, like the International Container
Terminal Services Inc.
The PPA
generated a net income of about P2.3 billion last year,
or about 14 percent lower, compared with the previous
year’s P2.67 billion.
Of the
figure, the PPA, as a government-owned and -controlled
entity, should remit to the national government half of
its net income, or about P1.15 billion, for 2007. |
