"Pier finished, ships no more!"

Chances are high that when officials of local government units assemble for development rather than political purposes, they will talk about an infrastructure project that turned embarrassing. It is the story of a concrete bridge which was completed shortly before a powerful typhoon came. As I wont to hear, the flood wrought by the weather disturbance was so heavy that it changed the course of the river. When the engineer visited the project site, he was completely startled by what he saw. Below the bridge was dry land. The water was gone! It prompted him to send a telegraphic message to the congressman saying "Bridge finished, river no more".

I have been meaning to trace the origin of this obvious joke. There must be some profound angle to the story before it was eventually given its humorous, at times sarcastic, twist. Alas, all the bulletins, so far, point to the province of my late father, Southern Leyte, as the place where the structure was erected. My respect to my late father being healthy, I have come to accept hesitatingly the story's funny evolution. To make it easier, I relate it to a modern version. This time, I speak of the sea port of the City of Maasin.

Few decades ago, Maasin, the capital of Southern Leyte, but then only a municipality, was a very busy port. Ships from Cebu City heading for Butuan and Surigao would normally drop their anchor in Maasin. They also made sure that on their way back, they received passengers and loaded cargoes there. Yet, the very narrow Maasin pier, partly concrete and partly wooden, jutted to the sea as if to welcome its visitors. Never mind, the quays which were precariously anchored that each time I was there, I entertained the fear that they could not secure the boats.

Despite its sad condition though, the Maasin port was an interminable hive of activities. There was nary a day when no ship would call the port. Just to rattle few shipping companies with bottoms serving the port, there were Sweet Lines, Corominas Richards, Trans Asia, Kasamahan, and Gothong. At times, two competing vessels would bark out promotional fares just to entice the passengers. It was a wonder that government did not readily recognize the need to uplift the port. The pier did not improve even when ships of bigger tonnage came. Aha, fast crafts, notably the Waterjet and Supercat had difficulty securing their vessels.

Eventually, government, following the characterization given it by Walter Lippmann in his book Public Philosophy, reacted. While its move was late, it was still most welcome. So, after decades of neglect, government felt it was time to improve the port facilities. After putting in huge investments, today the sea port stands out. It is very spacious, as it is impressive with specific docks for fast crafts and the roll-on-roll-off ships.

However, like the river that changed course when the bridge was completed, the modern pier is almost useless. I am tempted to corrupt the telegram sent by the project engineer decades ago. For our present purpose, let me say, "Pier finished, ships no more". My problem is that while the engineer had the congressman to send his message to, I have none.

Indeed, there are many days in the week when no ships anchored in the new Maasin City port, making it some kind of a non-performing asset. I think of this problem especially in the context of the long holiday period within the All Saints Day celebration. I am sure, many people would like to go home to Southern Leyte. The limited number of ships presently calling the port of Maasin City will not help make transportation attractive. It is beyond my comprehension why in stark contrast to the frenetic business conducted at the Maasin port decades ago, there are far less economic activities going on there now. It is time, government sets forth new attractive and realistic policies that should re-engineer the shipping companies into making more calls at the new Port of Maasin City.