PPA to privatize Iloilo, GenSan ports

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) plans to bid out the operations and maintenance of two major ports in Visayas and Mindanao – one in Iloilo, the other in General Santos City – to the private sector within the first semester.

PPA general manager Jay Santiago said yesterday the agency would privatize the terminal leasing of Iloilo Commercial Port Complex (ICPC) and Port of General Santos.

Santiago said the PPA was finishing the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the two projects with the target of issuing it to the public within the first half.

“As far as the PPA is concerned, we intend to bid it out. Hopefully, we will be able to bid it out before the middle of this year, both the ICPC and Port of General Santos. Right now we have not received any renewed unsolicited proposal for the two. I think personally that is a good sign that we can proceed on bidding them out,” Santiago said.

“We will offer the full terminal leasing. The winning bidder will take care of the operations, management, landside and waterside improvement and expansion,” he said.

Santiago expects the privatization of ICPC and Port of General Santos to proceed without delay, especially as the TOR would just mirror the provisions outlined in a previous proposal.

“Ideally, we can bid it out before the end of June if not within the year. We are now working on the terms of reference. We don’t have to look far in crafting the TOR because we have done our homework already for ICPC and Port of General Santos,” the PPA chief said.

However, the PPA has to adjust the cost of modernizing and operating the ports to consider the impact of inflation especially on construction materials.

In 2018, Razon-led International Container Terminal Services Inc. filed an unsolicited proposal to the PPA to develop both the ICPC and the Port of Dumangas in Iloilo.

Back then, ICTSI said it is willing to spend more than P5 billion to modernize the infrastructure and superstructure of the ICPC.

Had the proposal materialized, ICTSI would have spent at least P8.7 billion to develop the port.

PPA had planned on dredging and deepening the drafts of the ICPC and purchasing a modern quayside crane handler worth P1.35 billion.