PFDA seeks $62-M loan for fish port rehab

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA) is hoping to tap the Chinese Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) for a $61.5-million loan to fund the first phase of its $150 million planned rehabilitation of the Navotas Fish Port.

According to PFDA general manager Rodolfo T. Paz, Jr., the PFDA is forwarding all its preliminary studies for the proposed loan to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) for approval.

The proposed $61.5 million loan from the Chinese Eximbank, Paz said, is intended to finance the rehabilitation of the 47 hectares Navotas Fish Port which serves Metro Manila and most of Northern and Southern Luzon.

According to PFDA Corporate Counsel Lawyer Butch Sd. Ortega, the Navotas Fish Port was constructed back in the 1970s and the 35 year-old structure is already outdated.

Repairs of the port and quayside, he said, have to be made. The fish post-harvest facility, he further revealed, is sinking.

During high tide, Ortega said, the Navotas Fish Port is underwater.

Likewise, from an original areas covering 69 hectares, the Navotas Fish Port is now grappling with a squatter problem.

Informal settlers, Ortega said, now occupy at least 10 percent of the fish port and certain areas which should have been an industrial zone have now been converted into residential areas.

The Navotas Fish Port, at the same time, Ortega said, needs to badly upgrade and improve its technology.

The Navotas Fish Port, aside from servicing Northern and Southern Luzon, also serves as a main distribution port for fish catch from the Visayas and Mindanao.

The PFDA had been hoping to get some funding from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

JICA, unfortunately, has been forced to withdraw a P5-billion official development assistance offer to the PFDA as an offshoot of the March 11 tsunami disaster that struck Japan.

According to Paz, JICA formally informed PFDA last month that it is reluctantly withdrawing its ODA offer for the rehabilitation of five regional ports, specifically the Davao, Iloilo, Camiligan, Lucena, and Sual fishports.

JICA officials, Paz said, explained that they are withdrawing their ODA offer as they need to concentrate on repairing devastated Japanese fish ports as a result of the March 11 tsunami that hit several major Japanese coastal and fishing towns.

However, Paz said, JICA is allowing the PFDA to use the JICA-funded feasibility study for the rehabilitation project to seek alternative financing from other sources.

The PFDA, Paz said, is hoping to present the FS for possible alternative financing from a number of countries such as Korea, China, the United States or to European donor countries.

The PFDA, Paz said, will turnover the completed FS to the DA which will have to formally negotiate for any alternative financing.

The JICA ODA offer, Paz said, had been in negotiation since 2009 and the project FS was completed last year.