Press Release
September 11, 2014

CHIZ TELLS DTI TO EASE IMPACT OF PORT CONGESTION ON PRICES

Senator Chiz Escudero asked the Department of Trade and industry (DTI) to immediately resolve pending issues related to port congestion because of its adverse effect on the prices of commodities that is expected to hit hard consumers during the last quarter of the year.

At the Senate Finance Committee hearing, DTI said the outpour of trucks now that "ber" months had set in would push prices up and result in more backlogs in the ports.

The budget of DTI for next year is P4.07 billion, which is lower than their previous budget of P4.7 billion. According to reports, the allocation was adjusted downward with the abolition of the Cottage Industry Technology Center, an agency attached to DTI.

According to Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo, there are around 4,500 containers coming out of the Manila ports on a daily basis, but the number is expected to go up until the Christmas season. He added that they expected some 80,000 containers to occupy the ports until December.

"That's basically our problem. The vessels unload seven days a week, while we only operate five to six days," Domingo said.

Escudero reiterated that if there were around 4,5000 containers released and unburdened from the port areas each day while the arrival was just the same number as that of the released trucks, there would be around 5,000-container pile-up per week. The senator also acknowledged that sweeper vessels were already utilized in order to remove the backlogs from the ports.

According to Domingo, over 15,000 have already removed by the sweepers.

Domingo also said there are around 20,000 backlogs in the Manila ports as estimated by port operators, to which Escudero said had affected other areas like Singapore and Hong Kong.

"There is also a similar problem in Hong Kong and Singapore because of our problem here. They don't want to dispatch their vessels because they will only add up to the ships that were unable to dock and unload; they chose not to ship the cargoes which also resulted in traffic in those countries," Escudero said.

"I don't see a solution. There are 20,000 backlogs from other countries, another 20,000 occupying our port areas. You're taking away only enough that's coming in; roughly the same figure and you have an additional 2,500 per week. That's still 40,000 by the end of the year. So by the time you reached January, we're talking of 80,000 containers both from outside the country and those inside the ports already," he added.

Furthermore, according to DTI over the last two weeks around 64,500 containers arrived in the Philippine ports while 68,800 trucks were released.

Escudero also reminded Domingo that they did not allocate budget for the roads, which according to DTI will relieve the congested ports.

The proposed budget of DTI and all its attached agencies was approved for plenary for its final determination, deliberation and approval.

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