PPA TO REMIT MORE THAN P3B IN DIVIDENDS FOR 2017

THE Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) will remit to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) more than P3 billion in dividends for 2017, a 54-percent increase from 2016’s P1.956 billion and the biggest it has contributed since 1986.

In a statement on Tuesday, PPA said the amount “eclipsed by at least 30 percent all the dividends it remitted to the government, at least in the last decade, including its erstwhile record of P2.158 billion” in 2015.

The agency attributed the increase to the strong performance of the Manila International Container Terminal, Manila South Harbor and North Port, complemented by that of its 24 port management

This shows “that we are reaping agency’s] management implemented in the last two years,” PPA General Manager Jay Daniel Santiago said.

This includes the “reduction of documentary requirements, faster turnaround time of trucks and vessels in ports, and modernization of strategic ports,” he added.

“With the higher dividends, we can guarantee that the national government can easily implement its anti-poverty measures, particularly in…infrastructure spending and PPA’s total expenses last year rose by 11 percent, compared with 7 percent in 2016, because of the increased implementation of proj- ects at a rate of 90 percent.

“This is a very welcome development for the PPA, considering that it [predicted] earlier that growth is, concerns clouting the country’s mining industry and the volatile foreign exchange rates,” Santiago said.

PPA is mandated to remit 50 percent of its annual net income to the government after the late President Corazon Aquino granted