‘Divert Manila cargo to curb port congestion’

SOME of the cargo coming from and/or leaving the port of Manila should be diverted to two other facilities located in the North and South of the Philippine capital, a state-run think tank said in a policy note.

The Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) made this recommendation in a policy note as part of short-, medium- and long-term initiatives to curb and eventually avert port congestion in Manila.

The policy note, entitled “Port Congestion and Underutilization in the Greater Capital Region: Unpacking the Issues,” which was published last month, recommended that a cap be imposed on the capacity of Manila’s ports and divert cargo traffic to and from the Manila International Container Terminal and the Manila South Harbor to the Subic and Batangas Ports.

“Cargoes bound for or coming from the south of Manila should call on the Batangas Port while those bound for or coming from the north of Manila should call on the Subic Port,” a recommendation of the PIDS policy note read.

Citing 2014 data from the National Economic and Development Authority, the PIDS said that the two Manila ports have an average utilization rate of 79%, with both having a combined volume of 2,884,029 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) vis-à-vis the total capacity of 3.7 million TEUs.

On the other hand, the Batangas port only has a 7.8% utilization rate while the Subic port has 6.3%.

For the short term, the same study urged the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. to revive the Philippine National Railway’s freight operation to its inland container depot in Calamba City in the Southern Tagalog province of Laguna, particularly during off-peak hours. The PIDS also suggested to roll out a 24-hour Web-based integrated truck dispatching, appointment and booking system to improve the logistics chain.

For the medium term, PIDS said that the government should adopt a rationalization plan for future port development and investment programs for ports in the Greater Capital Region in the National Capital Region, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog.

The think tank also recommended the creation of an interagency Land Identification and Acquisition Committee that would identify potential port relocation or expansion sites.

For the long term, the PIDS suggested that the government draft a national multimodal transport and logistics development plan. — Alden M. Monz, Businessworld