Glan port ready for RoRo vessels

GLAN, Sarangani -- Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay Sr. and Governor Miguel Dominguez inaugurated on Friday the new Roll-On Roll-Off (RoRo) facility of Glan International Port, a gateway that provides alternative trade links and inter-island routes in the South.

While Southern Mindanao is tossed up as the country's next vegetable basket, Binay said the new RoRo port will eventually benefit thousands of farmers in the region as this would facilitate "fast transport of perishable goods" and would resolve the "burden of the high cost of transportation using commercial vessels."

This new RoRo route "will enable to immediately ship the produce at a very cheap cost," Binay said.

He also said this service would boost the emerging cross-border trading and people mobility between the members of Jose Abad Santos-Glan-Sarangani Cooperation Triangle (Jags-CT) which fosters better trade relations between the Regency of Sangihe, Indonesia and Davao del Sur and Glan.

The prioritization to develop Glan Port came after then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared it in 2005 as a Limited International Port.

The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) consequently undertook in 2007 the rehabilitation of the dilapidated pier with a 20M budget.

In 2012, another P28 million was approved for the port development which covered the construction of this RoRo ramp, concreting of landing area, repair of crossway, among others.

The RoRo ramp was proposed to provide links with that of the RoRo ramp of the neighboring Port of Mabila, Sarangani, Davao del Sur and its people thru the expanded Strong Republic Nautical Highway.

According to PPA port district manager and PDO of Southern Mindanao Atty. Christian Santillan, among "its contemporaries in the newly constructed RoRo capable ports in Southern Mindanao, the Port of Glan is the only one which has reached international status."

"It has been transformed into a formidable alternative port" in which he cited its integrated Customs, Immigration, Quarantine and Security (CIQS) has also bilateral standards.

Santillan said the advent of the RoRo concept and the Glan port was envisioned to link with the "seven thousand islands of the country using RoRo vessel where shippers only need to pay terminal fee at the port of entry and the cargoes that are loaded thru container vans or trailers are rolled up to the next port of call."