THE airport and seaport in Cagayan de Oro as well as the Mindanao Container Terminal (MTC) located at the Philippine Veterans Industrial Development Corporation (Phividec) in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental received support from Australian agency.
The said ports recently received a total of P750,000 equipment and capability building support from a government project funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).
Dubbed as the “Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area Support to CIQS or BEST on CIQS”, the project specifically donated a P500,000 worth of equipment support to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) and P250,000 to MTC to support its capability building activities.
The allocation is part of the P3.75-million equipment and capability building assistance of the BEST on CIQS project to priority ports in Mindanao and Palawan such as Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, General Santos-Sarangani, Cotabato, and Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.
Undersecretary Virgilio Leyretana of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said Mindanao and Palawan are gradually gaining momentum towards increasing trade, tourism and investment in the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines East Asean Growth Area (Bimp-Eaga) by improving the delivery of customs, immigration, quarantine, and security (CIQS) services at ports.
He added that a secured, coordinated and harmonized operations at ports can attract more investors which plows back more income to the city and generates more job opportunities.
Leyretana challenged the recipients to maximize the skills and equipment they got from the project.
Meanwhile, Port Manager Efren Bollozos said the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras they received will help them monitor the entry and exit of passengers as well as cargo ships and goods in the seaport premises.
Bollozos said the installation of CCTV cameras came in time with the security audit of port conducted by the Office for Transportation Security (OTS), the single authority responsible for the security of all modes of public transportation systems in the country.
“We hope that people would feel secured whenever they enter the seaport premises as they are working very hard to do all the possible means of securing them,” Bollozos said.
Cagayan de Oro Port Manager Naga Rascal also thanked AusAID, Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco), and National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) for the medical equipment and supplies, fire hose cabinets, hydrants and extinguishers for the domestic airport.
“Oftentimes passengers would go to my office and ask for first aid supplies like Betadine”, said Rascal, adding that the medical supplies are among the basic needs of passengers at the ports.
Meanwhile, Engineer Manuel Kionisala of Phividec, which manages MTC, said the installation of the radar facility at the container terminal will help ease surveillance and monitoring of port activities.
The radar, he added, was acquired several years ago yet it remained idle since MTC personnel lack the capability on how to use it.
Using the financial grant of P250,000 from the BEST on CIQS project, MTC was able to conduct short courses on using the radar in November last year.
In partnership with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), MTC can now detect vessels and ships going in and out of Cagayan de Oro.
The radar is now operating 24/7, seven days a week, according to Lieutenant Commander Nelson Torre of the Philippine Coast Guard.
He said the radar system maintains a record of activities of the sea and it monitors maritime security challenges such as transnational crimes, human trafficking, smuggling and illegal fishing, among others.
On the other hand, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Northern Mindanao, which sits as secretariat to the local CIQS consultative council, received one unit of laptop computer and digital recorder.
“Small as they are, they will go a long way,” said DTI director Alicia Euseña.
She added that the equipment would ease their coordination work with the council’s member agencies.
Euseña reiterated that the council needs the full cooperation of its members to make Northern Mindanao a secured investment hub.
Implemented by the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco), now known as MinDa, the BEST on CIQS is a three-year project which is designed to facilitate the increase of trade, tourism and investment in the Bimp-Eaga. The project ended in August last year.