Exec: Forum to review Cabotage Law impact

A BUSINESS group is holding a forum on logistics to evaluate whether the impact of the Cabotage Law after it was amended three years ago to bring down the shipping cost.

At the weekly Wednesdays @ Habi at Kape – Abreeza, Antonio Peralta, chair of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines –Southern Mindanao Business Council, said that the forum will validate whether the impact of the new law has been felt as there seems to be no major movement especially in the shipping costs.

The conference, which will take place on January 31, will bring in about 70 participants, that include traders, among them exporters or their representatives, in Mindanao as well as the Visayas.

Peralta said traders who want to move their products have continued to face high cost of shipping. “Sometimes, it is even easier to import (in terms of shipping cost),” he said.

The forum, he said, will look at whether the amendment to the Cabotage Law has really been implemented and whether it has impacted on the shipping costs especially for the small companies that want to move their products to their desired markets.

“A lot has to be looked at,” Peralta added, pointing out that the issue on Cabotage Law has been there since both the business sector and the government in Mindanao started pushing for its amendments.

The forum, he added, will eventually come up with a resolution that it will present to the government as some of those invited are top government officials.

In 2015, then President Benigno A. Aquino III signed the amendments to the law with the explanation that its implementation would bring down the cost