043007: Stakeholders agree on local port's privatization

By VG Cabuag

Reporter

AFTER being delayed for months, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and exporters have settled their differences regarding the privatization arrangement for the Manila North Harbor. According to an agreement between both parties, a single private operator will be allowed to manage one of two terminals in the harbor as long as the PPA will run the other facility, thereby introducing competition.  “We were just invoking the law,” Meneleo Carlos told BusinessMirror in a phone interview, referring to Executive Order 308 entitled “Accelerating the Privatization of the North Harbor.” Besides chairing several committees at the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Carlos also sits alternately at the National Port Advisory Council. Signed by former President Joseph Estrada in October 2000, the order remains in effect until repealed, Carlos said. According to the Order, North Harbor will be split into two packages: the first package to include Slip 0, Piers 9 to 12; and the second, Piers 14, 15 and the Vet Yard. “We agreed to the [bidding for a single-operator] for as long as the PPA will operate the remaining portion of the North Harbor to compete with the privatized portion,” Carlos said. Meanwhile, a PPA document claims that the PCCI, the Philippines’ largest business group, “supports the single-operator scheme in view of the magnitude of development required if Phases I and II would be developed at the same time.” “PCCI hopes, however, that a different operator will be selected to attend to the next phase of development since this will offer the competition required,” it added. For his part, PPA general manager Oscar M. Sevilla said that the agency may soon release the revised terms of reference of the Manila North Harbor privatization, which contains the contested single-operator scheme. For decades, the planned privatization of the North Harbor, one of the country’s largest but most inefficient port, has sparked infighting among the stakeholders, including port workers. Last year, PCCI’s transportation committee chairman Xavier Aboitiz agreed to PPA’s proposal of a single-operator scheme, only to be denied by other PCCI members weeks later. PPA was able to elevate the terms of reference containing the single operator scheme at the National Economic and Development Authority-Investment Coordination Committee (Neda-ICC). However, the NEDA-ICC said that its submitted project documents remained incomplete since a feasibility study was not included. The North Harbor generates more than P200 million in revenues per year.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/04302007/shipping01.html