Saturday, March 10, 2007 Vice mayor urges push in port extension By Danilo V. Adorador III
THE City Council won't take the plan to halt the port expansion sitting down, Vice Mayor Michelle Spiers said, as traders urged officials to consider its economic implications.
Vice Mayor Spiers said any move that affects Cagayan de Oro Port's nascent expansion should be based on the principles of "free enterprise," noting that the plan's main objective was to avoid the city's commercial harbor from competing with the Mindanao Container Port at the Phividec industrial zone in Misamis Oriental.
Elpidio Paras, president of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (Oro Chamber), agreed, saying the plan to limit the port's development to rehabilitation only--instead of a full expansion--may affect its efficiency.
The plan is included under Malacañang's Super Region Strategy, which calls for the prioritized developments of major transport hubs in Mindanao while limiting developments in other infrastructure areas to avoid competition and, therefore, hasten growth.
This would ensure that all priority projects in Mindanao "are completed on schedule and at lowest cost to the government," said Virgilio Leyretaña Sr., head of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco), in a letter to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), which controls port developments nationwide.
Medco oversees the Super Region Strategy.
But economic growth in Mindanao must be driven by competition--under the principles of free enterprise, Spiers argued.
Paras said shippers and port users must be involved in any plan that affects the city's lone commercial harbor.
While the Oro Chamber has yet to come up its own collective stand on the issue, Paras believes that shippers and port users must be given freedom where to do business.
"If shippers--particularly those in the large containerized business--find it easy and cost-efficient to use the Phividec Port, then let them do it there," he said.
He added: "For those who find the Cagayan de Oro Port more efficient because their business are already situated in the immediate surroundings, then let them do it here. From a business perspective, one would like to do business in the least possible cost and the best possible service."
Cagayan de Oro Port is already on its first stage of congestion--at 72 percent berth occupancy rate, which is way above the 65 percent threshold of international standards, said Isidro Butaslac, assistant port manager.
Expansion and construction of new berthing spaces can be curtailed under Medco's plan, said Butaslac, adding other developments such as the working yard expansion and improvement of storage facilities can also be affected.
But the biggest loss with an underdeveloped Cagayan de Oro Port would come from the huge shipping companies already located within the periphery of the port, said Efren B. Bollozos, Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) general manager in Cagayan de Oro.
Sluggish port activity means slower economic activity, and this would discourage shipping companies that are already eyeing to invest around the port area, Bollozos said.
