CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The Bureau of Customs in Northern Mindanao (BOC-10) said Wednesday it plans to restore the previous status of the port here as an international containerized shipment facility.
The port in Barangay Macabalan ceased to receive international cargoes 15 years ago when the facilitation of imported shipment was transferred to the Mindanao Container Terminal sub-port in Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental.
BOC-10 pointed out that the Macabalan port was “once a haven of international cargo and heavily contributed to trade facilitation and revenue generation.”
The decision to bring back Macabalan port’s previous status came up in response to the clamor of various shipping lines led by American President Lines, which estimated the arrival of 300 to 400 containers per week at the facility.
John Simon, BOC-10 district collector, said plans are already under way to put the ports restoration plan into action after the agency has met with Mayor Oscar Moreno and Engr. Isidro Butaslac Jr., of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), which manages the Macabalan port.
“This development is expected to boost the business and economic climate in the city as well as in Northern Mindanao. But with this development, the rise of the volume of cargoes will somehow cause inconvenience if not planned well as it will cause heavy traffic,” Simon said in a news statement.
He said BOC-10 sought the help of the local government unit to plan the traffic management and route of cargoes from the port.
Simon said Moreno has also expressed support to the proposed restoration plan but suggests expanding the operation of the Mindanao Container Terminal as a long-term plan for the “metropolization” of Cagayan de Oro.
He said the restoration would be advantageous to the city government once the “Mandanas” doctrine is fully implemented in 2022.
The Supreme Court granted in 2018 and reaffirmed in 2019 the petitions of Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas and former Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia Jr., under which local government’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) would come from 40 percent of collections of all national taxes from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), plus the BOC’s collections of import duties and other taxes.
With the Mandanas ruling, the DBM estimates that income of first-class provinces would have about P814-million increase in their IRA to P4.4 billion next year; highly urbanized cities, up by P394 million to P2.13 billion, and first-class municipalities, up by P187.62 million to P1.01 billion.
The PPA has also started to upgrade its stacking capacity in Macabalan Port to cater the international cargo shipment and already allotted 23,000 square meters for its designated port area.
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