Cabinet body orders speedy release of food cargo at Manila port

MANILA, Philippines – A Cabinet cluster has ordered Manila port operators to prioritize the release of food shipment to ease the backlog of unreleased imports that has jacked up food prices.

The Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion instructed the International Container Terminal Services Inc (ICTSI) and Asian Terminals Inc (ATI)  to treat as urgent food items and shipment to “address the looming food shortage in the metro.”

According to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), food products account to 20% of cargos piled up at the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) and the Manila South Harbor (MSH).

Congestion at the Ports of Manila continues to decline with yard utilization almost down to the desired level of 80%.

“Congestion continues to decline at the ports of Manila but we cannot wait until condition normalizes before delivering these food items. We are asking the shipping lines to also prioritize food items first in hauling cargos currently stacked at different foreign ports,” Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) General Manager Juan C. Sta. Ana said.

However, Sta. Ana explained that the order only applies to containers that have been cleared by the Bureau of Customs. 

“Two operators have designated areas for food shipment inside their ports in order to prolong the storage period of the items while waiting for Customs clearance and delivery,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, private port operators ICSTI and ATI will release boxes that contain ingredients of consumer items “to reduce the inflationary effects of congestion to the market prices of consumer products.”

Pressed for solutions

The cluster, composed of Sta  Ana and other top trade and transportation officials, has been looking for ways to ease congestion at the Manila ports, caused by a truck ban of the Manila City government.

Congestion at the Manila ports has affected importers as their raw materials do not reach their warehouses on time, Sta Ana said.

“So they face problems in their warehouses because people can’t process anything,” he said.

In February, Mayor Joseph Estrada signed an ordinance disallowing “cargo trucks, gravel, and sand trucks, cement mixers and other heavy cargo trucks with 8 wheels and up or whose gross vehicle weights exceed 4,500 kg to enter or pass through the city from 5 am to 9 pm, with a 10 am to 3 pm window.”

Since the truck ban, only 3,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) are being moved out each day, while the average TEUs arriving daily is at 5,000, causing a backlog of 1,500 TEUs per day, figures from the PPA revealed.

Consumer prices or inflation kicked up to 4.9% in July – its fastest pace since October 2011. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan blamed it on port congestion. 

On August 11, the PPA asked Malacañang to designate 5 additional routes for trucks coming to and from the ports of Manila as the city government stood firm on its truck ban prohibiting heavy cargo vehicles from plying its streets, except Roxas Boulevard. 

But the routes are still under consideration,  PPA information officer Christopher Paringit told Rappler.

The PPA is hoping to mitigate the backlog of cargo release to “sweep” empty containers to the ports of Subic and Batangas.

The Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion also continues to find ways on how to further decongest the ports, including the opening up of additional empty container depots with close proximity to the Manila ports.

It is also looking at transforming a 10-hectare empty lot inside the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) complex to temporarily house empty containers bound to be collected by the international shipping lines.

The CCP depot will only be operated from 12 midnight to 5 am to allow the free-flowing of trucks to and from the area. – Rappler.com