MAJOR stakeholders in the maritime industry, with backing from top business groups, have united in asking President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. to immediately revoke a Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) order imposing an additional container monitoring system in the current ports operations. Implementation of the order will “result in an almost 50 percent increase in the logistics cost of imported goods,” according to them.
In an urgent open letter to the President, 17 groups said there is no need to implement PPA Administrative Order No. 04-2021 or the proposed additional container monitoring system.
The stakeholders warned that the Trusted Operator Program-Container Registry Monitoring System (TOP-CRMS) and Empty Container Storage Shared Service Facility (ECSSSF) may “end up derailing the (Marcos) administration’s economic recovery efforts.”
“The implementation of the TOP-CRMS/ECSSSF has consistently and vehemently been opposed by various stakeholders since the first public consultation held on June 15, 2021,” the group said in its open letter published in major dailies.
The group underscored that its estimates show that implementation of the Order will “result in an almost a 50-percent increase in the logistics cost of imported goods.”
“The PPA fails to consider that the ultimate victims of these additional costs is the ordinary Filipino consumer, who is already bleeding from an inflation rate of 8.1 percent,” the group told the President.
The stakeholders also pointed out that the implementation of TOP-CRMS/ECSSSF was not designed to address smuggling in the country.
“In a Trucking Summit organized by the PPA on January 16, 2023, it was categorically admitted
by PPA officials that the TOP-CRMS was not designed to address smuggling, and that its relationship to smuggling is merely incidental,” the groups claimed.
They said the “real focus (of the PPA order) is the return of empty containers and container deposits.”
The 17 signatories also recalled that the PPA held only one public consultation on June 15, 2021, before it issued PPA AO 04-2021, and that this consultation “only involved select stakeholders.” In radio intrviews, however, PPA officials have strongly denied the lack of consultations, saying stakeholders were repeatedly reached out to the past months.
The complaining groups also had an ominous warning: “PPA’s failure to analyze the impact of TOPS-CRMS and coordinate with stakeholders could lead to a repeat of the 2014 port congestion fiasco.”
In 2014, the stakeholders recalled, “the lack of rigorous analysis of policy options and lack of proper coordination with stakeholders resulted in (a) disastrous port congestion with an economic cost of at least P43.8 billion.”
With this, the groups said the country cannot afford a repeat of the fiasco nine years ago, especially in these “already troubled times.”
The groups warned that the PPA order “threatens to cripple the transport and logistics industries and the national economy as a whole.”
Among the major business alliances who signed the open letter were Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (PCCI) President George T. Barcelon, Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc., (FFCCCII) President Dr. Henry Lim Bon Liong and Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport).
Also signing the open letter to the President were the heads of the Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines (SCMAP), Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (PAMPI) , Philippine Multimodal Transport and Logistics Association Inc., Alliance of Concerned Truck Owners and Organizations, Alliance of Container Yard Operators of the Philippines, Association of International Shipping Lines Inc., Association of Off-Dock CFS Operators of the Philippines, Custom Brokers Federation of the Philippines, Pasig Port Users United, Philippine Liner Shipping Association, Philippine Ship Agents’ Association, Port Users Confederation of the Philippines, Practicing Customs Brokers Association of the Philippines, and the United Port Users Confederation of the Philippines.
The group sent copies of the open letter to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Speaker Martin Romualdez, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista, Bureau of Customs Commissioner Filemon Ruiz, and House Committee on Transportation chairperson Rep. Romeo Acop.
In May 2022, some 14 trade, industry and transport and logistics group issued a solidarity statement seeking the “immediate revocation” of the policy, as it “threatens to cripple the transport and logistics industries and the national economy as a whole.”