Chelsea gets Philippine Ports Authority OK on Davao port proposal

MANILA, Philippines — Dennis Uy’s Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. has hurdled a major stumbling block in its unsolicited proposal to modernize the Sasa port in Davao City, securing a much-needed approval from the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) which brings the company closer to gaining the upper hand in the project.

“For the Davao Port, we got a letter from PPA general manager Jay Santiago agreeing on our request to align the rehabilitation of the pier based on our design. That is one of the major pending matters,” Chelsea Logistics president and chief executive officer Chryss Alfonsus Damuy told The STAR.

“With this, we can move faster and looking forward to get the original proponent status (OPS) for the Sasa Port project soon,” Damuy said.

Chelsea in August last year submitted an P11.2-billion unsolicited proposal to the PPA for the modernization of the Davao Sasa port.

The modernization of the Sasa Port was part of the public-private partnership program of the previous administration, but was later on scrapped.

Damuy earlier said the company is asking the government for at least a 25-year concession period in its offer.

He said the proposal would be done in at least four phases, with the first phase likely costing P5 billion and involving the  rehabilitation of the existing port and installation of modern equipment.

In an interview last January, Santiago said Chelsea’s unsolicited proposal may get the endorsement from the PPA by the end of the month or within the first half of February.

However, the expected grant of OPS to the unsolicited proposal hit a snag as the proponent was asked to fine tune its proposed engineering design.

Santiago in an interview last March said the agency’s engineering group was in discussions with Chelsea to thresh out certain adjustments to its proposed engineering design for the development of the Davao Sasa port.

“So until and unless they resolve that, the engineering concerns of their proposal, that’s the only time we can proceed on processing it for purpose of granting the OPS. So we still do not have a timeline because the ball is still in their court to adjust the designs as required by our PPA engineering,” Santiago had said.

Chelsea has been awarded in October last year the OPS for its unsolicited proposal for the development, operation, and management of the Davao International Airport over a concession period of 30 years.

Chelsea is also part of the incoming third telco player Mislatel consortium, which is also composed of Uy’s Udenna Corp. and state-owned China Telecom.

Aside from Chelsea’s proposal, the PPA has also received an offer from Davao-based Kudos Trucking Corp. to rehabilitate and improve the port in General Santos. Kudos Trucking is a private terminal operator whose main facilities are located in Davao.

Ports operator giant International Container Terminal Services Inc. of billionaire Enrique Razon also submitted an unsolicited proposal to the PPA to upgrade the Iloilo Port with a planned investment of P8.7 billion.