JICA report on decongesting Manila ports gets Subic-Clark support

A set of policy proposals to decongest port traffic in Manila has received the support of the Subic-Clark Alliance Development Council. The proposals, part of a study funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, aim to give the underutilized Subic and Batangas ports a major boost by rerouting spillover container cargoes from “the already congested Manila ports” to them, said Council chairman Felicito Payumo. “The JICA-funded study validates what we have been saying all along: that we should learn from Laem Chabang experience,” he said in a statement. According to Payumo, Thailand's Laem Chabang port was built to decongest the Bangkok River port. “Both Bangkok and Manila ports were doing two million TEUs [twenty-footer equivalent units] then. Now, Laem Chabang with six berths is doing three million TEUs while Bangkok is limited to just one million TEUs,” he said. Payumo added that if the proposal is adopted, "it can stimulate the development of Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon regions.” He pointed out that Manila is equidistant at about 110 kilometers from both Subic up north and Batangas City down south. The JICA-funded study, which was conducted by Transport and Traffic Planners Inc., said port usage in Subic in 2011 was only 5.6 percent of its actual capacity; Batangas' usage is only at 4.2 percent capacity. The JICA study also includes new pricing strategies such as reduced wharfage, berthing fees and vessel-related charges in Batangas and Subic ports; and a six-year delay in capacity-expansion investments at the South Harbor and Manila International Container Terminal. The Manila ports, it added, handled 98.2 percent of total volume of container traffic passing through these three places. — BM, GMA News