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A GROUP
of shippers from Mindanao has asked the government to
fasttrack the expansion and redevelopment of the three
major ports the southern part of the country as they
experience bottlenecks due to shallow waters and other
infrastructure problems.
In its
position paper, Mindanao Federation of Shippers
Association said that Philippine Ports Authority (PPA)
should hurry up the expansion of the ports of Davao,
General Santos and Zamboanga, the three major terminals
in Mindanao.
The
group said that the current cargo-handling facilities
and the ports’ shallow waters are not enough to
accommodate the increasing traffic volume.
It also
prevents carriers to utilize larger vessels, since the
ports cannot accept the vessel to dock.
“The
expansions of the three ports were overdue already. The
decision of the PPA to finance the project through its
available budget has aggravated the delay,” the group
said in a statement.
Instead,
the group recommends that PPA should allot at least a
third of its budget to these ports or tap an available
official development assistance loans, such as those of
the Asian Development Bank’s intermodal project to aid
in the speedy completion of the projects.
According to PPA’s plans, the expansion and development
of the three ports are due for completion between 2009
and 2010.
PPA only
awarded the projects to the winning bidders early this
year. Port of Davao’s expansion costs P398.5 million,
Zamboanga Port’s development costs P382.58 million, and
General Santos Port’s extension costs P397.53 million.
The group has given their minimum requirements for the
expansion of the three ports. These include a dedicated
domestic and international container terminal, at least
two quayside cranes in each port, depth of 12 meters,
and berthing space of between 200 meters to 250 meters.
The
expansion of the Port of Davao and Port of General
Santos were originally included in the Philippine Port
Development Package to be financed by the Japan Bank for
International Cooperation (JBIC). The project cost for
the Port of Davao was $66 million, Port of General
Santos is $85.14 million, and Port of Zamboanga is
$58.82 million.
There
were disagreements between JBIC and PPA on the issue of
cargo handling, which initially delayed the
implementation of the expansion program for years and
was eventually dropped.
Instead,
PPA said it would fund the port expansion using its
corporate funds, but the state firm’s resources then
were focused on expanding the Port of Batangas, another
project funded by the JBIC for P5.5 billion.
PPA has
since turned down the idea of accepting ODA loans since
it is much cheaper finance a project using its available
funds or through bond floatation in the domestic market,
according to PPA assistant general manager for finance
Aida P. Dizon in an earlier interview.
PPA
recently floated P2-billion bonds to finance its 10
major port projects up for completion before President
Arroyo steps down in 2010. |
