- GlobalPort takes over operation of Surigao Port
- The management of Surigao Port in Surigao del Norte was formally turned over to GlobalPort Terminals on April 29
- GTI and its subsidiaries have won bids for other ports under the Philippine Ports Authority’s Port Terminal Management Regulatory Framework
The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) on April 29 formally turned over to GlobalPort Terminals Inc. the management and operations of Surigao Port in Surigao del Norte.
The turnover ceremony was led by Froilan Caturla,manager of the PPA Port Management Office of Surigao Port and GlobalPort’s Henry Rophen Virola, PPA said in a statement. This follows PPA’s issuance of the Notice to Proceed signed on April 22.
The joint venture of GlobalPort Ozamiz Terminal Inc. (GOTI) and Harbour Centre Port Holdings Inc. (HCPHI) won in January the bid for the 15-year contract to manage the port terminal of Surigao baseport for P1.068 billion.
The joint venture was the lone bidder at the November 2021 bidding. Another company submitted its bid documents past the deadline. PPA’s Bid and Awards Committee declared the joint venture as the highest responsive bidder and recommended awarding to it the contract.
GTI and its subsidiaries, including GOTI, are in the port terminal management business. Its network spans the ports of Matnog, Tacloban, Nasipit, Pulupandan, Iligan, Ozamiz, Surigao, Tagbilaran, and Zamboanga, for which they won at biddings held under PPA’s Port Terminal Management Regulatory Framework (PTMRF).
The bidding was conducted through open competitive bidding procedures using the non-discretionary pass/fail criterion as specified in PPA Administrative Order No. 12-2018, as amended.
AO 12-2018 provides guidelines for selecting and awarding contracts under PPA’s PTMRF, embodied under PPA Administrative Order No. 03-2016.
Under AO 03-2016, investments in ports are to be categorized into six tiers ranging from a fully private concession to a fully PPA-managed port, for easier determination of a port’s investment arrangements.
Since last year, PPA has been bidding out port terminal management contracts for Tier 3 ports.
Surigao baseport falls under Tier 3, which means PPA handles the physical undersea and landside infrastructure (capital investment, wharves, piers, reclamation, dredging) while the contractor invests in above-ground fixtures and semi-fixtures and mobile handling equipment (e.g. passenger terminal building, cranes, forklifts, trucks).
The port terminal management contract of Surigao baseport covers the management and operation of cargo-handling, passenger, roll-on/roll-off (RoRo), and other port-related services at the port on Borromeo Street, Surigao City.
It involves stevedoring services, Ro-Ro cargo services, bagging services, container terminal management, passenger terminal management, porterage services, storage management, waste and shore reception facility management, water distribution services, weighbridge facility, and ancillary and other related services.
PPA earlier opened bidding for the port terminal management contracts of other Tier 3 ports, namely Puerto Princesa, Ormoc, Tabaco, Legazpi, Zamboanga, Iligan, Ozamiz, Calapan, Tacloban, Nasipit, Matnog, Fort San Pedro, Pulupandan, Surigao, Masao, Tagbilaran, Pagadian, and Pasig River ports.
PPA has awarded contracts for all of these ports, except for Pagadian and Pasig River ports.
The agency also bid out recently the contract for the first Tier 2 port, Sasa Wharf in Davao.
PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago earlier said the authority is privatizing the operation of ports that it manages. Including the previous ones already bidded out, Santiago said the target is to bid out a total of 25 port terminal management contracts before the end of the current administration’s term on June 30. – Roumina Pablo
