Philippine Ports Authority downplays effects of truck holiday

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) yesterday downplayed the effects of the first day of the six-day truck holiday.

PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago said less than eight percent of the entire truckers’ groups operating in Metro Manila participated to express their objection to the reported planned phase-out of 15-year-old trucks and the difficulty in returning empty containers to the yard depot of shipping lines.

Santiago said that while there is a large volume of importation because of the Christmas season, he said the situation today is “far” from the port congestion in 2014 and that there is “no cause for alarm.”

The PPA said that in 2014, port utilization was 100 percent, while at present it is only 70 to 73 percent.

Both Santiago and Department of Transportation (DOTr) Assistant Secretary for maritime Fernando Juan Perez believed that the demonstrators were barking up the wrong tree.

They should air their grievances before the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and the shipping lines that are the owners of the empty container vans.

Perez said that while there was a memorandum issued before, the LTFRB already said that “it would not be based on the 15-year phase-out but based on road worthiness… We are wondering why they are protesting, and they are protesting in the wrong area.”

The PPA chief said that on the issue of the empty container vans, “the PPA can only intervene on short term.”

He added that it is up to the forwarders, truckers and shipping lines to discuss how to manage the empty containers.

Santiago said steps are being taken to avert port congestion as PPA looks for new yards for empty containers and will soon launch the first ever barge terminal where transfer of container van, whether full or empty, to Tanza, Cavite would be possible.

They are also looking at the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) if there is a space they could use to store the empty containers.

Mary Zapata, vice president of the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines (CTAP), said the government through DOTr should act on their demand not to implement next January the phase-out of trucks more than 15 years old.

The DOTr yesterday reassured the public of the minimal impact on port operations of the ongoing protest by a group of truckers.

The agency said major trucking companies have expressed that they will not join the truck holiday, which will last until Nov. 24.

“We talked to (Transportation Secretary Arthur) Tugade about the phase-out of trucks. He told us that from 2017 to 2000, there will be no phase- out based on age of trucks but only on road worthiness. There was no mention about year models,” Zapata said. – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Richmond Mercurio, Rey Galupo