CPA revives plan to build Liloan port

THE saturation of Cebu ports has prompted the Cebu Port Authority (CPA) to revive plans to construct a new international seaport in Liloan, Cebu and convert the Cebu International Port (CIP) into a domestic port.

Speaking at the press conference in connection with the National Maritime Week Celebration at Mariners’ Court, Col. Oscar Lopez, CPA manager for safety and security, said there are now 15 million passengers a year passing through the domestic ports.

“We have to protect all the passengers; hence, we have to build more passenger terminals. We need more buses to shuttle them from the terminal to the vessel.

And we need to screen every person who will pass through the terminal,” Lopez said.

Lopez said the CPA will use the old feasibility study conducted by Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) for the construction of the new international port, but he doesn’t know yet about the mode of implementation.

There were initial reports that this will be implemented through the public-private partnership of the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.

Lopez said the revival of the plan to construct a new international port was discussed by the Cebu Port Commission, the CPA, policy-making body chaired by DOTC Sec. Antonio Abaya.

Estimate: P9B

The members are CPA Commissioners Tomas A. Riveral and Joselito Pedaria representing the cargo-handling labor sector; Benjamin Akol and Vicente Suazo representing the shipping sector; and Carlos Co and Dennis Villamor (who is also the current CPA general manager), representing the business sector.

In 2002, the Jica team composed of Yukio Nishida, Takahiko Kishimoto and Atsushi Sato presented the feasibility study of the new international port with an estimated cost of P9 billion.

After the presentation, then CPA General Manager Jose Jake Marquez announced that CPA will borrow P6 billion from the international foreign creditors such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), which was formerly known as the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF).

Marquez said the P6 billion will be used by CPA to construct the international port, while the P3 billion shall be shouldered by the private sector who wants to do business in the area.

However, the project was opposed and blocked by some influential Cebuano leaders who were not consulted about it.

Last year, upon the request of the CPA Board headed by Villamor, Jica revisited the feasibility study and their experts re-inspected the five areas in Punta Engaño in Lapu-Lapu City, the towns of Cordova and Minglanilla, the waterfront of the South Road Properties and the shoreline of Consolacion and Liloan towns.

Jica then affirmed their 2002 recommendations that the shores of Consolacion and Liloan are the ideal sites for the project.