Philippine Ports Authority sets relocation of North Harbor settlers

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is set to relocate informal settlers at the Manila North Harbor in a bid to hasten the rehabilitation and modernization by the Manila North Harbor Port Inc. (MNHPI), now a joint venture between the Romero-led Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI) and San Miguel Corp. (SMC), of the dilapidated port.

PPA Port District of Manila head Constante Fariñas said they are planning to come up with a financial package for the informal settlers at the North Harbor.

Earlier, MNHPI said the presence of these informal settlers is delaying the implementation of the modernization of the country’s busiest domestic port.

The joint venture company that won the P14.-5 billion contract to modernize and operate Manila North Harbor has also said the port needs to be cleaned up as soon as possible, including the removal of containers left by some of the shipping companies.

Fariñas said the relocation should have started by this time to ensure smooth execution of the rehabilitation project, but the change in administration and the lack of concrete plans for the informal settlers are impeding the relocation.

“Definitely, we will start relocation within the year,” he said, adding that the port agency targets that at least 50 percent of the North Harbor settlers should have been relocated by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Fariñas said the new partnership in the North Harbor consortium has already been approved by the port agency.

Manila North Harbour Port Inc. is now a 65 to 35 joint venture between HCPTI and SMC after the latter bought out the shares of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) in the company.

SMC earlier revealed that it plans to construct a brand new grains terminal in the North Harbor. This grains terminal will service the needs of SMC’s food and beverage businesses.

SMC officials added that aside from the synergies with their food and beverage businesses, the offshore areas of Manila North Harbor provide the ideal location for a tank farm that will replace the Pandacan Oil depot. “SMC’s affiliate, Petron, thus is very keen on the investment as well,” officials said.

SMC president Ramon Ang has said that North Harbor has synergies with Petron Corp. and San Miguel Foods.

However, SMC’s plan to construct a grains terminal and a tank farm at the North Harbor still has to be approved by the PPA.

“They will have to seek PPA approval first. That was never really part of the original contract,” Fariñas said.

“[MNHPI] is bound by the provisions of the contract based on a conceptual design,” he said, adding that the original master plan only includes the construction of three terminals at a project cost of P14.5 billion.

Fariñas said that despite the change in ownership in the North Harbor consortium, PPA is confident that the rehabilitation will be pursued and that changes in the port will be evident in the next few years.

The first phase of the modernization program involves the redesign of the 10-pier port into  a three- terminal port with much wider beds that would, all together, enable the port to improve its rate of handling containers, from the five containers per hour to 28 containers per hour. From 1.5 million TEUs capacity, MNHPI will increase the capacity to five million containers a year. “This reflects more than 500 percent increase in productivity for the port, and renders substantial  savings for shipping companies,” MNHPI president Mikee Romero said.  

The 25-year North Harbor modernization program includes pier rehabilitation, dredging of port waterways, computerization, introduction of new cargo handling equipment and construction of  a modern passenger terminal.

Terminal 1 and 2 will be the container  terminals while Terminal 3 will be exclusively for general cargo. A separate modern passenger terminal will be built, rivaling those of other countries, to cater to domestic travelers.