MARITIME WATCHKEEPER

The modernization of the long delayed premier port, the Manila North Harbor (MNH) will cost the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) an estimated R4 billion.

PPA general manager Alfonso Cusi said the amount will cover Phase I amounting to R1 billion and Phase II and III, R3 billion.

Cusi said the agency will finally proceed with the three-year modernization of MNH soon and will start with the rehabilitation of the Marine Slipway, which will then be connected to Pier 14.

Cusi said the rehabilitation of the Marine Slipway alone, excluding equipment, could cost R300 million.

He said PPA will be able to finance Phase I after the agency decided to cancel a plan to build a new building, estimated to cost R750 million.

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In the dzRH Sunday 9:15 p.m. radio program I co-host with Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, we featured Prof. Romulo Neri, finance professor at the Asian Institute of Management and director general of the House planning and budget office, to do an economic overview of the past year and what lies ahead.

Neri points out that while our 3 percent growth rate last year was far better than that of some of our neighbors who are suffering from recessions, there’s a lot to be done to move the economy. The problem with our economy, he stressed, is that it has remained relatively undeveloped so that even in times that are good for our neighbors, ours doesn’t move as fast as theirs.

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The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is looking at the possibility of floating some P3-billion worth of bonds to finance the rehabilitation of the Manila North Harbor.

PPA administrator Manuel Cusi said that a bond flotation will be resorted to in case efforts to convince the private sector to finance the project via a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme fail.

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