Return of PH port congestion feared due to Papal event

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MICT Berth Aprilshot7The five-day holiday to make way for the Papal visit can easily bring up congestion levels at the Port of Manila if container pullouts are not sped up beforehand, according to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).

PPA noted that the next seven days before the papal visit “will make or break the port decongestion efforts being carried out by the government.”

The port authority said that if yard utilization at the two Manila Ports remains at current levels within those seven days, “it will easily bring back the ports to congestion level” after the conclusion of the papal visit from January 15 to 19, since majority of the activities are concentrated in the City of Manila.

The historic visit is expected to attract waves of people from all walks of life.

Atty. Juan C. Sta. Ana, PPA general manager, said that unlike the recent nine-day Christmas break when all roads were open, almost all major routes to and from the Manila ports will be closed to accommodate the papal festivities which will “slow down, if not paralyze,” port operations.

The City Government of Manila as well as the Metro Manila Development Authority already advised the closure of the roads where Pope Francis will be passing, including those leading to and from the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, University of Sto. Tomas in Espana, and Quirino Grandstand in Luneta.

In 1995, Pope John Paul II’s visit to Manila to celebrate World Youth Day slowed down port operations for a couple of days, but then there was no congestion.

“PPA, along with the Cabinet Cluster headed by CabSec (Cabinet Secretary) Jose Rene Almendras, is appealing to all cargo owners with cleared cargoes pending before the two ports to immediately pick those up soonest to vacate as much space as possible,” Sta. Ana said in a statement.

“We need the spaces in preparation for a worst-case scenario to accommodate the incoming import cargoes from vessels,” Sta. Ana stressed.

“We are anticipating difficulty accessing the ports during the papal visit but we do not expect the vessels to slow down in bringing in cargoes to the country, so we are asking the participation of each stakeholder to maintain our decongestion efforts,” he added.

PPA said data from port operators showed that combined yard utilization on December 24, which signaled the start of the nine-day break, was 89%, up from 79%.

The Port Congestion-Multisectoral Working Group had projected port congestion to increase by 3% a day during the long Christmas break, likely reaching 107% by the end of the holidays. PPA said the group “is again painting such kind of scenario during the papal visit.”

As of January 7, the number of vessels waiting at the pilot station went up to 17, excluding the five currently docked at Manila South Harbor and seven at the Manila International Container Terminal, PPA said.

Earlier in the week, Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion head Secretary Almendras asked the private sector to pull out as much cargo as possible from the Port of Manila before the Feast of the Black Nazarene and the papal visit.

He assured all the operations at the ports will be normal during the weekends.

“When we implemented the measures at the height of the port congestion, we were able to move as much as 2,000 containers on Saturdays and Sundays. But now that the situation has improved, importers move only about 50 to 100 containers during weekends,” Almendras said.

He also noted that the volume of refrigerated containers in Manila ports is double than the normal volume.

“We have to move out some 60,000 empty containers,” Almendras said.

Despite the long holiday recently, the Cabinet official said the Port of Manila did not return to past congestion levels, and that traffic inside the port “has been moving really well.”

“No shipments were delayed. We expect the volume to normalize by February,” he noted. – Roumina Pablo

Photo courtesy of International Container Terminal Services, Inc.