MARITIME WATCHKEEPER

It has taken almost five years for the PPA GM to implement the law, and for that he still deserves to be congratulated! Perhaps, this is a sign that slowly and little by little the port agencies are trying to shed off the stigma of having been called by Mr. Romulo Neri as agencies under ‘regulatory capture’.

During September Maritime Week Celebrations in Cebu, the PPA GM was reported as having announced that:

“It’s very clear in the law. If it is rolling cargo, which means it is driven by the owner into the ship, there shall be no imposition of fees for stevedoring, handling and even wharfage. President Arroyo said there shall be no wharfage” Source:

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All the time, I thought Mr. Neri would make his move at the right moment.  But with his disappointing performance at the public hearing, I think he compromised himself by being so naïve in implementing what he calls his ‘hidden agenda’ — that is, by sleeping with the enemy.

Here’s what he said in his opening statement last September 26:

Also, despite my comments during the NEDA ICC meeting I went along with the project because I thought that if I can just reduce the profits of the existing players to one half and last year they made about P47 billion at least and I share this benefits with the Filipino people the benefits would amount to about P23 billion and I would have recovered the cost of the NBN project in less than one year.

So I had my own hidden agenda so to speak Mr. Speaker in going along with the project but of course it went through the NEDA ICC process, the NEDA technical board process and it was positively recommended by the NEDA technical staff for ICC and NEDA board approval. (more…)

Early this year I was happy to note that Mr. Neri had finally made some bold moves in trying to bring to the attention of other government officials what he calls the ‘state of regulatory capture’ of the government regulators for the public utilities and services supposedly in the service of the Filipino people – looking after their welfare and protecting them against abuse ranging from inefficient services to abnormally high rates.  As a result I wrote the piece found here

However, his apparent change of heart in running after what he has called the ‘booty capitalists’ in this country has shown that he has been merely and simply mouthing some academic mumbo jumbo, or cowed out of his professed stand that booty capitalism is doing the country much harm..  Faced with a situation where he could have brought down the whole cabal of ‘booty capitalists’, he turned his tail and ran! (more…)