{"id":21818,"date":"2014-08-14T00:28:40","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T16:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=21818"},"modified":"2014-08-14T00:28:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T16:28:40","slug":"dti-stresses-need-to-increase-capacity-of-congested-manila-ports-amid-growing-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/08\/14\/dti-stresses-need-to-increase-capacity-of-congested-manila-ports-amid-growing-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"DTI stresses need to increase capacity of congested Manila ports amid growing economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"STOCK<\/a>
STOCK PHOTO COURTESY OF PORTCALLS.COM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Gregory Domingo on Wednesday stressed the need to build a new port to increase the capacity of the congested ports of Manila amid the growing economy of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe long term solution really is we need to build a new port because our economy is going to continue to grow at a very fast pace over the next decades,\u201d Domingo said in a Senate committee on trade, commerce and entrepreneurship inquiry into the congested ports of Manila<\/p>\n

Domingo admitted to the Senate panel that the Manila ports have already exceeded their capacity due to the increasing number of containers coming in and out of the country \u201cbecause of our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dSo, the solution is to add more capacity,\u201d Domingo emphasized.<\/p>\n

The government official said other long-term solutions as suggested by the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is the revival of the rail line from Tutuban near the North Harbor to Calamba in Laguna.<\/p>\n

\u201dThey (ICTSI) are willing to build at their own expense so that they can use the train to bring containers all the way to Calamba,\u201d Domingo said.<\/p>\n

Domingo said the shippers can also use the Subic and Batangas ports but it will only alleviate the congested Manila ports by at least only 15 percent.<\/p>\n

During the hearing, Manila vice mayor Isko Moreno announced the opening of the Quirino Ave. for the twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) from the North and South harbor to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) starting Monday next week.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe TMC (Traffic Manila Council) will meet to draft a resolution to amend the route which will be opened for truckers, uninterrupted, full operational for 24 hours a day,\u201d Moreno said.<\/p>\n

Moreno, however, said the Manila city government will continue to enforce the truck ban outside the designated areas specifically the San Marcelino road from 6am to 10am and from 5pm to 9pm during weekdays.<\/p>\n

\u201dWith this truck ban, you can see that there is no longer chaos in Manila and we were very honest when we said that you can stay but you have to behave,\u201d Moreno said.<\/p>\n

Alberto Saunsing, director of Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines, insisted that the Manila track ban has contributed to the congestion at the Port of Manila.<\/p>\n

\u201dBefore the Manila truck ban, we were doing 6,000 truck trips per 24 hour but after the truck ban, we were down to 2,000 truck trips per day. That\u2019s logistical nightmare. You don\u2019t have to go to Harvard to realize that,\u201d Suansing said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Senate committee on trade, commerce and entrepreneurship chairperson Senator Paolo Benigno \u2018Bam\u2019 Aquino IV has instructed concerned government agencies to operate in the ports of Manila even during weekends to process the documents of truckers<\/p>\n

\u201dSo, let\u2019s wait for four weekends that our ports are opened and that\u2019s the commitment that we have to the agencies there and we will check that if we pull out during weekends, it will help the congestion,\u201d Aquino said.<\/p>\n

The truckers complained that although the Bureau of Customs (BoC) officials are present, other government personnel such as from the Department of Agriculture (DA) are absent during weekends.<\/p>\n

\u201dWe have to ask the government agencies to open during weekend and Monday mornings to make sure that we have longer hours of operation inside the port,\u201d Aquino added.<\/p>\n

Aquino also said there is a need to address the corruption issue after Federation of Fil-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FFCCCI) executive director Danny Cheung complained about the \u201cmiscellaneous expenses along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dI think one resource speaker has mentioned that there are \u2018along the way fees\u2019 which are undocumented. We have to look into that,\u201d Aquino told the Senate media after the hearing.<\/p>\n

During the hearing, Senator Francis \u2018Chiz\u2019 Escudero requested Cheung to elaborate the \u2018along the way fees\u2019 but the FFCCCI official answered again \u2018along the way.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201dWhen you said along the way, is that paying along the way or what is along the way?,\u201d Escudero asked Cheung again.<\/p>\n

\u201dSomething like there are many charges,\u201d Cheung answered.<\/p>\n

\u201dWho has many charges?\u201d Escudero asked again.<\/p>\n

\u201dAlong the way. I cannot precisely describe it at this moment,\u201d Cheung replied.<\/p>\n

Escudero stopped from pursuing his question but reminded the resource persons the need to decongest Manila ports so as not to affect the prices of basic commodities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Gregory Domingo on Wednesday stressed the need to build a new …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":19707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ph","mauthors-jelly-f-musico","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}