PARTIDO Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) standard bearer Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, Jr. will work to upgrade and modernize Philippine ports to make the country at par with other nations and get a bigger chunk of the increased worldwide shipping trade.

Speaking at a forum organized by the Philippine Interisland Shipping Association, Marcos Jr. stressed that economic recovery from the onslaught of the Covid pandemic would get a boost from the higher duties and taxes to be collected from the additional cargo and shipping activities.

“If we hope to re-emerge from this economic adjustment after Covid, we have to modernize and upgrade our ports,” he said.

“There are many opportunities in that regard. Perhaps, we can make the Philippines a logistics center, considering our strategic importance in terms of our geographical position,” he continued.

“Any ships that come out of the West Philippine Sea, will have to pass through Philippine waters. In transportation and logistics terms that is a very, very great advantage,” the leading presidential bet pointed out.

Data from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) showed that cargo volume handled by ports under their jurisdiction totaled 200.051 million metric tons from January to September 2021.

Of the total volume, foreign cargoes represented 64 percent while domestic cargoes represented 36 percent.

Marcos likewise noted that shipping has also become a very important part of worldwide economic trade with greater demand for volumes especially last year that posed a problem to many ports in Singapore, Hong Kong, and other Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

“We can take advantage of the fact that the ASEAN ports have run into problems because we did not expect demand in shipping volumes to increase so much in such a short time. Kaya hindi na ma-handle. They cannot offload the ships quickly enough,” the former senator elaborated.

“There are many ports that, with just a little bit more policy changes, we can develop immediately and become very much part of that global market. With airlines only to resume full-capacity operation by 2023, passengers will also be undertaken by ferries,” he also said.

In line with this, the presidential aspirant said it would be more productive for the government to come up with a port upgrading or modernization program rather than to prepare to get around a possible constitutional problem that is to arise if Senate Bill No. 2094 or the Public Service Act of 2021 would be enacted into law.

The said bill, which was passed on third reading last December 14, aims to amend the Public Service Act, by providing a clearer differentiation between “public services” and “public utilities” that will free public services not considered natural monopolies from foreign equity restrictions.

The Senate version of the bill limits “public utility” to services on the distribution of electricity, the transmission of electricity, and water pipeline distribution and sewerage pipeline systems, airports, seaports, and public utility vehicles.

Tollways and expressways were also included in those considered as a public utility.

Thus, under the Senate bill, sectors not considered to be public utilities—such as telecommunications, airlines, and the domestic shipping industry—would no longer be covered by the citizenship requirement.

“The bill is an attempt to rationalize the different functions, especially for trade, but there is a constitutional conflict on the provision on foreign ownership of local businesses,” he explained.

“The Senate bill, as it stands, will come under judicial test and will be challenged. We have to be very, very careful. That would be the most contentious issue the SBN 2094 will have to face. I think we are going to have to face some legal challenges to that Senate bill,” Marcos stressed.

“Instead of getting around this possible constitutional problem, the government should undertake an upgrading program, a modernization program to include all the best technologies that they are using now in Europe, that they are using now in Singapore,that they are using now in large ports around the world. It is counter-intuitive that an archipelagic country with more than 7, 000 islands, does not have a developed port system,” he stressed