Underutilized seaports face shutdown – DOTr

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) plans to close down seaports that are no longer performing to their intended capacity as part of the government’s strategy to modernize the maritime industry.

Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista told reporters the DOTr would ask for financing from a multilateral lender to craft a masterplan involving the construction and upgrade of seaports.

The masterplan will also identify seaports that can be shut down due to lack of utilization and renovated into another asset.

“We might have to shut some seaports if we have to shut them. Some of the seaports were built just to have a seaport. However, you have to study these projects first before you push through with them. Basically, that’s our rationale,” Bautista said.

“Before you put up a seaport, the operator should understand the population of the location. The operator should also know the products that can be transported,” he said.

Bautista said his agency would seek the expertise of either the World Bank or Asian Development Bank in doing the masterplan.

The agency hopes the masterplan will also list how seaports can increase their utilization to ensure that the government gets what it paid for.

“We have to compel operators to raise the utilization of their seaports. If you have an asset, you have to maximize its utilization. It costs money for the government (if the utilization of a seaport is low),” Bautista said.

For 2023, the DOTr had asked the Department of Budget and Management to allocate at least P800 million in the national budget for the construction of 36 new seaports nationwide.

The DBM, however, rejected the proposal.

Transportation Undersecretary Elmer Sarmiento earlier said the DOTr would come up with a masterplan identifying how many seaports have to be built to link all the country’s islands.

He said the Philippine Ports Authority and Maritime Industry Authority will be tasked to do this, with the financial and technical assistance of a multilateral.

“These seaports are mostly small ones acting as community, social and tourism ports. We have more or less 600 ports nationwide, while more than 100 ports are being constructed. That would bring us to around 744 ports and yet they don’t cover all our islands,” Sarmiento said.

Under the 2023 budget, the proposed funding for the DOTr more than doubled to P167.1 billion, but the bulk of it at P105.2 billion will be spent on railway construction.