‘PPA surpasses growth goal despite mobility restrictions’

The Philippine Ports Authority’s (PPA) growth in the Januaryto-july period has exceeded its target despite the limitations brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

PPA General Manager Jay Daniel Santiago said the state-owned port operator and regulatory body has “already surpassed” its target “for this year despite the pandemic based on recent performance highlights as of end-july.”

Santiago said the port authority recorded cargo throughput growth of 20.27 percent, 15.35 percent for container throughput, and 5.66 percent for ship calls as of July 31. This pushed revenues to P9.7 billion for the said period, an 8.58-percent increase from P8.9 billion the year prior.

PPA has set a revenue growth target of 6 to 7 percent for the year.

“We have been able to surpass last year’s milestones. We were able to increase our throughput, increase our cargo traffic by about 15 percent year-on-year, but of course, we’re still a little bit lagging behind prepandemic levels,” Santiago said in a news briefing.

“But as the economy slowly opens up, we are able to contend with these challenges and make do with the challenges facing us.”

Compared to the pre-pandemic levels, the cargo throughput was “barely 2 percent higher than 2019, while container throughput is behind by 7 percent, and ship calls down by 27.5 percent.”

Santiago noted that the PPA will continue to implement more port projects this year beyond the 451 completed port projects since 2016.

“We anticipate to complete 110 to 120 more projects before the term of the president ends in June 2020,” he said.

The PPA will also be auctioning off port operation contracts in the last few months of this administration.

“We still have about five or six more that we’re working on. Government needs the funds and based on our assessment, revenues that will be generated out of the terminals that we will bid out will increase by [more than a thousandfold] in the 15 years that they are operating. We should be able to bid out a total of about 25 by June 30, 2022 including the 9 already bid out,” he said.

The port authority also hopes to award three unsolicited proposals for port development within the term of President Duterte. These are the modernization proposals for the Iloilo Commercial Port Complex of International Container Terminal Services Inc., the development of the Davao-sana Port by Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure holdings Corp., and the upgrade of the General Santos Port by Kudos Trucking Corp.

“All of those are currently pending with the National economic and Development Authority [NEDA] for evaluation. We are in continuous communication for additional documents and requirements that they are requiring,” Santiago said.

he is hopeful that the NEDA and the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) will be able to process the proposal before the start of the ban on public works.

“Of course we’re hopeful that the government should be able to approve and award those three projects to the winning proponents later on, but we are all dependent on the actions of the NEDA and the ICC, as to whether or not they will approve it or give due course to those unsolicited proposals,” Santiago said.