|
THE
Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said it may devolve its
facility in Caticlan to the local government unit (LGU),
after authorities took notice of the revenue
possibilities of the facility as a result of the surging
passenger traffic going to Boracay, the country’s top
tourist destination.
“We may
just place there a provision against further rate
increases to protect the public,” PPA general manager
Oscar M. Sevilla told reporters in a huddle with him
last week.
The port
of Caticlan, which brings hundreds of tourists to
Boracay nearly every month, was originally classified as
a municipal port. It was placed under the PPA priority
development program and cost the state firm some P78.03
million to build. The project included construction of a
pier, one ramp for roll-on/roll-off vessels, reclamation
and breasting dolphin.
The port
of Caticlan was only fully completed early last year.
No data
were readily available for the port’s traffic, but for
the Port of Dumaguit, where the Caticlan terminal falls,
had 19,462 passengers from April to June this year.
On the
other hand, passenger traffic for the Caticlan Airport,
Western Visaya's fourth-most-busiest since 2005, is at
more than half a million passengers a year.
In
October, PPA devolved the operations of its Dipolog
port, a fishing and interisland terminal, to the
officials of the local government unit.
Sevilla
said the officials of Dipolog had requested for the
control of the port as they wanted to manage the
development of the area. Dipolog port does not belong to
the areas that PPA would develop between now and 2010.
Local
officials, in general, want a degree of control on the
port facilities as they could use these to develop their
area and as their jump-off point to get votes when
election comes, some PPA officials admitted.
According to the PPA’s policy, the LGU would give PPA a
management fee of about 10 percent of the total revenues
from the port. |
