Businessmen here are alarmed that there are no visible signs that the government is taking initial steps to comply with the requirements even as the July deadline for port security measures to be in place is fast approaching.
"We should not allow politics and the elections to slow down our efforts on security because our export and import business will be affected," Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Carlos Co said last week.
Co said the failure of government, particularly the Department of Transportation and Communications, to comply with port security requirements will result in the grounding of all economic activities in and out of international ports and export processing zones and severely affect the operations of manufacturing and export-import industries.
He added that if the Philippines fails to put in place by July security measures that are accredited by world bodies in its international ports, we will not be issued a "security-compliant" certificate, without which foreign ships will not be allowed to call on Philippine international ports by their countries of origin.
Conversely, Philippine-registered ships originating from Philippine ports will not be allowed to dock in other countries.
In a worldwide effort to combat terrorism, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations maritime body, ordered governments and shipowners to implement stringent maritime security measures or face severe restrictions in trade.
The IMO-imposed measures are contained in the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code that was released as early as 2002 for governments to comply with and enforce by July this year. There is no deadline extension in sight.
The measures are basically risk-management activities that include stricter control of access to ships, ports and no-go zones, installation of required equipment and surveillance gadgets onboard, security officers on every ship and emergency procedure plans.
More disturbingly for the Philippines, the United States, one of the largest trading partners of the country, has drafted its own Maritime Transportation and Security Act that is more stringent than the one required by the IMO.
The Philippines currently has 10 major foreign container ports — Manila International Container Terminal, South Harbor, Subic, Batangas, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and General Santos. These ports handle at least two million TEUs every year with annual revenues of at least P10 billion.
There are also some 200 Philippine-ships plying foreign routes. — Freeman News Service