Enough is enough

‘Tis the season for rehashed complaints.

Take the case of former House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella and his wife, Sangay Mayor Evelyn, who have found themselves facing the same issues against them all over again.

While the Supreme Court has held that double jeopardy does not apply where the Ombudsman dismissed a case during preliminary investigation against respondent public officer, preliminary investigation not being part of trial, there should be some kind of prohibition against rehashed complaints because they not only constitute some form of harassment or nuisance suits, they are also a waste of public resources.

According to Presentacion, Camarines Sur Mayor Jimmy Delena, the case recently filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against Fuentebella and his wife is obviously politically motivated and aimed at destroying the reputation of the Fuentebellas.

Delena pointed out the same issues raised in the complaint have been declared without merit by Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo as Tanodbayan in 2004 and then by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales in 2012.

Delena suspects that a politician who has been ordered arrested by the Sandiganbayan is behind the nuisance suit against the Fuentebellas and the reason behind the revived complaint is obviously connected to the upcoming 2016 polls.

News reports reveal that ZeroTolerance.org has filed a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman for plunder in connection with alleged ill-gotten wealth and for misdeclaration of wealth in his statement of assets and liabilities.

Why the optimism

Unless government acts fast, the Davao Sasa Port Modernization Project of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) may turn into another white elephant.

There are a number of private companies that have set up their own ports in this part of the country, so it is not hard to compare the development cost, which is observed to be very high.

Operators of privately owned Davao International Container Terminal (DICT) in Panabo City, Davao del Norte and Hijo International Port Services Inc. (HIPSI) in Tagum, owned by International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) and Hijo Resources Corp., have questioned the P11-billion cost difference of the Davao Sasa and Hijo Port projects.

Hijo Port is located in a 54-hectare property with an initial capacity of 450,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) while the existing Davao Sasa Port is on an 18-hectare property and has an annual capacity of 550,000.

Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) data revealed that Sasa Port generated 233,112 TEUs in container traffic last year while private ports serviced 378,880 TEUs. But officials insist that Sasa’s share of container traffic was 500,000 TEUs, increasing to 550,000 TEUs this year when in fact, it has not grown due to the transfer of many foreign container vessels to DICT in Panabo City.

This Sasa port modernization project, Mindanao’s first public-private partnership (PPP) project, is actually doomed from the start. After all, when you are working on the wrong presumptions and assumptions just to make it appear the project is worth more than what it really is, then how can it turn out right?

It is also being alleged the criteria set out by the DOT for prospective bidders interested in financing, designing, redeveloping, operating, and maintaining the Davao Sasa Port Modernization Project discriminates against local players.

For one, it required prospective bidders to be currently operating at least two international container terminals with a combined annual throughput of at least 500,000 TEUs for all terminals, one of which has an annual throughput of at least 300,000 TEUs. This, observers note, unduly favors only multinationals.

Back to faulty assumptions and projections

DOTC was working on the expectation that container traffic in Davao Bay will increase from 633,000 in 2012 to 3.1 million TEUs in 2040, or an average annual growth rate of 6.1 percent. For 2020 alone, the growth rate is expected to be 27 percent or 300,000 TEUs for a single year, something that has never happened in any part of this country. To support this growth, the size of land planted to bananas has to increase by around 20,000 hectares in one year, which is unrealistic.

It is also projected that throughput will increase from 800,000 TEUs in 2017 to 1.7 million TEUs in 2022, or more than 100 percent growth over five years, which again has no basis in reality.

Well, you might ask, why is government being overly optimistic?

They have to be, to justify the humongous P19-billion project cost of this port modernization project. How the winning bidder would be able to recoup its investment is unimaginable at this point.

The DOTC also seems to have made this port project a “priority” that it has forgotten about the several conditions set by the Regional Development Council of Region 11 before the project can be implemented. Among these are the acquisition of additional 6.2 hectares of right-of-way, appropriate compensation for private properties that will be acquired as additional right-of-way, proper relocation of informal settlers affected by the project, among others.

It also appears that this PPP has no prior approval nor prior consultation from the Sangguniang Panlungsod or City Council which are required under Sec. 27 of the Local Government Code.

The country’s first seaport PPP consists of two parts: modernization of the existing port and establishment of dedicated container handling facilities with initial design capacity of 1,900-2,700 container ground slots from 864 container yard ground slots currently, consisting of, among others: construction of a new apron, development of a linear quay, expansion of back-up area, provision of container yards and warehouses, as well as installation of container handling equipment like ship-to-shore cranes and rubber-tired gantry; and operation and maintenance of the port within a 30-year concession period.

The DOTC is anticipating that it will be able to award the project to the winning bidder by March next year, after which the project is expected to be completed by end-2019.

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