Cebu Port eyes a P400M loan to build a new terminal

• Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/local-news/2016/09/10/cebu-port-eyes-p400m-loan-build-new-terminal-496971
• Saturday, September 10, 2016

By Elias O. Baquero

THE Cebu Port Authority (CPA) is applying for a P400-million loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to build a new terminal for fast craft passengers in Cebu City.

Speaking in the 18th International Network of Affiliated Ports (INAP) Conference 2016, CPA General Manager Edmund Tan said that the project is expected to start by next year and to be completed before the end of 2018.

INAP is composed of affiliated ports from different countries.

“This major passenger terminal project in the pipeline will cater to all fast craft vessels,” Tan said.

Current operators of these vessels include Bullet Express, Fast Ferry Corp., Supercat, and Weesam.

The project has the go-signal of the Cebu Port Commission, the policy-making body of CPA chaired by the secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) or his alternate.

Tan said that they already filed their loan application with DBP in Cebu, which has forwarded it to its Manila office for approval.

Tan started his presentation with the corporate profile of CPA, which was created by Republic Act 7621. He described Cebu as a major trading center with its Asian neighbors even before Spain made the country its colony.

At present, Tan said, the Port of Cebu caters to the international market by maintaining linkages with other ports in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

The CPA, he added, is obligated to produce an efficient, safe, economical, and coordinated system of movement of goods and persons through the port, consistent with the constitutional mandate to give all regions of the country the optimum opportunity to develop.

Tan said he was confident that with DBP operating as an independent bank, the port authority’s loan application will be processed smoothly.

Just last week, the administration under President Rodrigo Duterte formally decided to stop the merger of DBP and Land Bank of the Philippines, which then president Benigno Aquino III tried to accomplish via an executive order last February.

However, the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations resolved to cancel Executive Order 198. Only Congress can amend or repeal both of the laws that created these two banks. The merger would have made the combined entity the second largest bank in the country.

As to the proposed new terminal, Tan said that Robinsons Galleria Cebu has offered to build a pedestrian overpass or skywalk from the proposed fast craft passenger terminal to its establishment, an offer that the Cebu Port Commission is still studying.