MARITIME WATCHKEEPER

MANILA—The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has finally agreed to the clamor of the private sector to change the charter of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and split its conflicting functions.Representing Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza in a dialogue with exporters recently, DOTC director Ric Romero agreed with exporters that to improve the efficiency of the PPA, it should either regulate ports services or focus on development projects.
It cannot do both.

Romero told the exporters that the DOTC is now pushing for the privati-zation and deregulation of ports operations and shipping but is still aligning the rules and regulations of a law passed during the Ramos administration to the needs of the industry.

He agreed that until today, the PPA has a split personality. As a regulator, it is motivated by profits earned from port operators, arrastre services and shipping companies in setting rates. It then uses its income for development projects.

This has worked against the drive to bring down the cost of port services and domestic shipping, which has been found to be much higher than the rates in neighboring countries.

Romero threw back to the private sector the challenge of finding ways of separating those conflicting functions.

It was likewise pointed out that monopolistic pricing still plagues the domestic industry due to the lack of competition.

Customers of domestic shipping and port services have been clamoring for a change in the charter of the PPA to resolve the issue that it is both referee and player in the port operations business.

They have likewise asked that private sector representatives to the PPA board include the main users of the ports, which are the industries that ship their goods across the islands. (Philexport News)

 

 

Words, words, words….. spewing out from mouths of people out to save their President. But will this really mean salvation to the suffering owners of cargo being carried by our moribund shipping industry?When Secretary Mendoza came in as Secretary of the DOTC, he was given a two-day briefing at the UA&P. Yes, two days to brief the new DOTC Secretary, and at that time we thought that he was really trying to understand the problems in his new job which would require his immediatel attention. (The briefing material has been preserved at here. )From the looks of what has not been accomplished during the last three years that he has held on to the post, Secretary Mendoza seems to have slumbered during that two-day briefing. “In one ear, out the other” is more like the fate of the issues that were raised with him. Makes one wonder whether somebody else has been running the affairs of the Maritime Sector of the DOTC.The biggest deception has been the “accomplishments in promoting the provisions of EO 170″ an Executive Order mandating for the “Encouragement of the private sector to invest in RORO facilities.” Magicians at the maritime agencies were able to massage the EO into their own concept of a “Strong Republic Nautical Highway” in order to protect certain operators that were not ready for the changeover.