Happy birthday, FVR

The country’s 12th president celebrates his 86th birthday today. Fidel Valdez Ramos served as chief executive of this nation from 1992 to 1998 in what can be described as a transformative point in the country’s economic landscape.

More than two decades after he assumed the highest government post in the country, he continues to tirelessly serve in any way he can. In my column last month commemorating the EDSA People Power movement, I had mentioned his role in initiating reforms (including computerization) at the Bureau of Customs.

He sent me a note of thanks the following day, but qualified that the real credit for the Customs reform during his stint as President belonged to Customs Commissioner Willy Parayno, Associate Commissioner Alex Arevalo, National Security Adviser Joe Almonte and Department of Finance Secretary Bobby de Ocampo.

With his note were issues of Visionary, a quarterly publication of Ramos Peace and Development Foundation Inc., of which he is chairman, and a copy of his latest book, Moving Ahead, a compilation of selected articles from his Sunday columns in the Manila Bulletin.

Thank you, FVR, for tirelessly reminding me that no matter our age, we can always be of positive value to our country. Happy birthday!

On using roros to solve the truck ban

Today, we give way to our readers’ letters. The topics range from solutions to the traffic problem, to the state of our crowded ports, to mining, and finally rice trading.

This one comes from Rolando Zosa, who wrote about how roll-on, roll-off (roro) ships may be used, even on a temporary basis, to move container vans that have been affected by the truck bans on metro roads. Here’s what he says:

“To alleviate the truck ban issues, Manila authorities can arrange a roro service from South Harbor, back of Manila Hotel, say 5 LCTs with 20 to 25 40-wheeler trailer capacities to a roro pier at Parañaque. (Other destinations can be developed). 

“The trucks can then use the Cavitex highway to deliver to southern areas of Metro Manila, especially the Cavite Export Processing Zone at Rosario, Cavite. The distance is 5.3 nautical miles.

“Assuming seven vessels with 25 trucks-capacity and five cycles during the 16-hour truck ban, 875 trucks can be handled, more if (the roros are) on 24-hour operation.

“The terminals (Manila and Parañaque) should be able to handle three roro vessels loading at the same time. It is assumed that the empty trailers can then go back the same way. The cost will average no more than P2,000 round trip, possibly less. It is best to have an arrangement with the truckers to set the usage, and fix the lowest possible cost of the roro service.

“The long term solution would be to put up a transhipment terminal, i.e., to move the containers from MICT and ATI using vessels to a transhipment port such as Cavite City, which can handle imported and local containers.”

On reducing domestic freight cost

From Alec N. Vega, president of Avega Bros. Integrated Shipping Corp., is welcome feedback from the field. We need more inputs from people like him.

“Thank you for your current article, Transform Ports Instead of Changing Law. Yes I agree with you that there are many ways of reducing our domestic freight cost other than tinkering with the Cabotage Law. 

“Building new ports and expanding our present ports all over the country would alleviate port congestion, thus help ship owners to have a faster turn-around time.

“Modernizing our antiquated cargo handling system would also improve cargo vessel turn-around time thus realizing savings which will in turn redound to lower freight cost. 

“You mentioned that because of over-crowding, it takes hours before a cargo vessel could berth upon its arrival in the port of Cebu. Actually it takes several days and sometimes a week before one could get a berth in this so congested port.

“This situation is actually happening not only in Cebu but in various places all over the country.

“Our cargo vessel MV Xander arrived last Feb. 18 in Cebu and was only able to berth on Feb. 25, or a week after its arrival to unload its cargo of soya bean meal.

“Our other cargo vessel MV Stephen V, which arrived last March 6 is up to now awaiting its turn, and as of this writing, couldn’t yet ascertain when it could dock.

“Our government must prioritize building and expanding more ports to accommodate our growing economy. While we lack so many basic infrastructures such as roads, bridges and etc. to be in pace with our economy, port development must be a top priority necessary to hasten trade for us to have a booming economy in our archipelago country. 

On mining and rice trading

Rolan, an overseas Filipino worker now employed in South Korea, writes: “I agree with your opinion. We should not allow mining companies to just extract the ore and then ship it raw to abroad. (There is) minimal added value but big environmental damage.

“The ore should be processed at least into intermediate products such as billet or ingots. This (will create) more jobs and (will be more) technology-intensive than extracting.

Gretchen Largoza wrote: “I would like to commend you in the article you wrote in Philippine STAR on April 18, 2013. It was an interesting read while I was researching on rice (production, importing, exporting, etc.).

“I’ve recently gone back home (to the Philippines), and my sister and I are working towards selling our rice products locally and to the world.

“To do it right, I am making sure that we research and learn more about our rice production, storage, irrigation, among other things before delving into the packaging and marketing of it.

“We know that there are a lot of things we need to do! We want to showcase to the world that we can produce quality rice. That’s why it is very crucial for us to learn as much as we can on this.

“Thank you for writing thought provoking articles.”

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Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.