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Thursday, April 15, 2004
Biz to gov’t: Issue EO on int’l port security
THE Cebu business community is urging the Philippine government to immediately issue an executive order (EO) that will recognize, adopt and order the implementation of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code in the Philippines, and to appoint the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) as the lead agency in implementing the code.
Philexport-Cebu president Allan Suarez said the issuance of the EO is urgent, as the country has only 54 days left to make its international port facilities ISPS compliant.
“The issue is becoming very emotional for the business community. I myself have not had enough sleep thinking what will happen after July 1,” he told a press conference at the office of the Confederation of Philippine Exporters Foundation (Cebu) Inc. yesterday.
July 1 is the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) deadline to implement the ISPS code, which outlines new security measures for ships and port facilities.
Cost
Aside from the EO, the adhoc committee formed to monitor the compliance of the Cebu International Port (CIP) is also advising CIP and the other international ports in the country to comply with the ISPS code at a minimum cost.
“The port’s compliance to the ISPS will become irrelevant if we (traders) can’t afford the cost, because it will still make business in Cebu uncompetitive,” Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) port committee chairman Robin Ong said.
The adhoc committee was formed by the Philexport-Cebu, CCCI and the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc.
If the CIP fails to be ISPS compliant by July 1, international ships will shy away from calling on the port, to avoid the hassles attached to interfacing with non-compliant
orts.
Non-ISPS compliant ports are considered contaminated and must undergo series of stringent treatment to be decontaminated.
Ong said trader-exporters and importers have accepted that there will be additional costs to security.
“But this will have to (mean) minimum interference (on) the flow of goods, as what the IMO said. For the traders, this means minimum cost,” he said.
The DOTC has already drafted the implementing rules and regulations, which the adhoc committee is currently reviewing, for the country’s compliance to the ISPS.
But Suarez said the EO must be issued first to make official DOTC’s participation in the ISPS code’s implementation.
Serious
He said the national government must consider the ISPS code a serious threat to the country’s economy, especially Cebu, which is a trading hub of the Visayas and Mindanao regions. Cebu largely depends on its export and import industries.
“(If CIP will not be compliant), it could literally close businesses and worse, put some 200,000 workers out of work. Not to mention the loss of revenues in exports amounting to over $3 billion in Cebu alone for the past year,” Suarez said. JBN
(April 15, 2004 issue)
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