Congressional panel approves liberalization of Cabotage Law

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - Three committees of the Congress today voted for the approval of a proposed measure that will liberalize the entry of foreign vessels between ports in the country.

Davao del Norte Representative Antonio Rafael del Rosario, vice chairman of the committee on trade and industry said that the joint congressional panels in the House of Representative has adopted and approved the Senate version of the bill allowing foreign vessels to transport and co-load foreign cargoes for domestic transshipment.

"We already adopted it in the committee while we took a look at the Senate version, these committee have decided to make amendments to that particular version of the bill," said Del Rosario, adding, "(However) the essence of the bill will be retained, definitely. I guess you can call them minor amendments."

He said that the bill will be tackled at the floor when the session resumes on May 4.

The Congress will take a break on March 21 to May 3.

"Various studies showed that the high cost of domestic shipping services is attributed to the lack of meaningful competition in the industry," panel chair, Las Pinas City Representative, Mark Villar said.

Villar said that to liberalize the carriage of cargoes by foreign vessels within Philippine waters, will ultimately benefit the Filipino people.

The measure seeks to assist importers and exporters in enhancing their competitiveness in the light of intensifying international trade and to lower the cost of shipping containerized export cargoes from Philippine ports to international ports and containerized import cargoes from international ports.

Under the bill, co-loading shall refer to arrangements between two or more international or domestic sea carriers, whereby a sea carrier bound for a specified destination agrees to load, transport and unload the container van cargo of another carrier bound for the same destination.

The bill said that arriving from foreign port, shall be allowed to carry a foreign container van cargo to its domestic port of final destination, after being cleared at its port of entry.