Trade groups welcome new RoRo system

The country’s major business associations welcomed the recent launching by President Arroyo of the commercial operations of the Road Roll-on Roll-off Terminal System (RRTS) from Luzon to Mindanao.

"It is a major step in the way to bringing down the cost of doing business in the Philippines," said Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis, Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Ortiz-Luis, as president of both organizations, has been advocating for over a decade for the modernization of the country’s major ports and domestic shipping industry not only to bring down the cost of transporting goods between the islands but also to speed up the flow of raw materials for processing into finished goods for the domestic and export markets.

"The President has finally put on the ground one of the most important cog in making Philippine industries more competitive against imports in the local market and against similar products from other countries sold to the global community," added Donald Dee, president of the Employers Confederation.

"The more efficient, sea-land transport system will also give micro and small enterprises in the rural areas link up with bigger markets and finally have better chances of growing bigger," Dee added.

"I would like to congratulate Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza for aggressively pushing the system despite the opposition of some of the attached agencies under him," Dee said.

Dee is behind the movement to tap the huge potentials of SMEs in solving the country’s unemployment problem.

The biggest advantage of the Roro transport system, Ortiz-Luis pointed out, is the elimination of arrastre and cargo handling and what has been blamed as one of the main causes of high shipping cost between the islands.

Ironically, the lone remaining cynic on the success of the new sea-land transport network was the Philippine Ports Authority , the very agency tasked with modernizing and maintaining in tip-top shape the country’s chain of government ports.

Its opposition is understandable, industry sources said, because PPA is the main beneficiary on high port charges for its yearly earnings increase as port charges are hiked. The Ro-Ro system, if allowed to flourish, will cut deep into the revenues of PPA from its domestic ports operations.

It has, however, failed miserably in bringing Philippine ports to the level of global shipping standards despite urgings of majority of port users and shipping customers. – Abe P. Belena, Philexport News and Features