Shipping, as backbone of RP economy, needs gov't attention

Chester Cokaliong, CEO of Cebu-based Cokaliong Shipping Lines and former president of the Visayan Association of Ferryboat and Coastwise Service Operators, has a very valid concern that should reverberate through the corridors of power and reach the ears of Malacañang.

Cokaliong is concerned, as are the rest of the shipping operators in Cebu, about the recent surprise decision of Keppel Cebu Shipyard, a subsidiary of Keppel Philippines Marine Inc., to shift its operations from ship repair to that of shipbuilding.

Cebu, owing to its strategic location at the very center of the Philippine archipelago, whose main mode of travel and transport throughout the islands is by sea, is naturally the hub of the shipping industry in the country.

Aside from Cokaliong Shipping, the country's other giant and mid-sized shipping firms such as Cebu Ferries, SuperFerry, Gothong Southern, Carlos Gothong, Sulpicio Lines, TransAsia, George and Peter, Lite Shipping, Roble, as well as fastcraft operators, are home-based in Cebu.

With probably about 80 percent of the entire shipping industry in the country based in Cebu, it should be pretty obvious to anyone that such an overwhelming presence of ships in one place needs a dependable support system that a ship repair facility like Keppel's can provide.

Of course Keppel is a private entity and is entitled to its own business priorities. But its private corporate policies should not diminish its larger corporate responsibility as a willing and cooperative partner in national security and development.

Cokaliong said the shift of Keppel Cebu from ship repair to shipbuilding will severely affect the largely Cebu-based shipping industry since addressing ship repair requirements will mean moving to the other Keppel ship repair facilities in Subic and Batangas.

That will mean additional costs and longer down times that the shipping industry can ill afford at this time when the country is bracing for the full impact of the global economic crisis.

To be sure, there are other ship repair facilities in Cebu. But according to Cokaliong, these are relatively small operations and cannot fully meet the demand posed by largescale operations evident in Cebu's being the hub of shipping.

 Recent newspaper reports and photographs show that large numbers of foreign cargo ships are lying at anchor in Subic, "grounded" for lack of business at whatever foreign country the economic crunch caught up with them.

What the scenario suggests is that, with global commerce slowing down, there should be a lesser demand for shipbuilding. On the other hand, with domestic shipping being the main mode of travel and transport in an archipelagic country, the need for ship repairs is greater.

And it should make for better business sense for ship repair facilities to stay close to where the shipping action is. And that place is nowhere else but Cebu, the acknowledged hub of the Philippine shipping industry.

Besides, said Cokaliong, who seems to be broad-minded enough to see other concerns in addition to shipping, keeping the Keppel repair facility in Cebu will at least help shore up the local economy.

Keppel Cebu, Cokaliong said, not only caters to domestic ships but foreign vessels as well, including the US Navy. Keeping this kind of clientele will mean precious foreign exchange being injected into Cebu's economy, generating jobs and keeping auxillary services going.

Despite his concerns, Cokaliong is keeping his faith. His company is in fact expanding, having just closed a US$4 million deal to buy a 10-year-old Japanese-built ship that will be the country's youngest RO-RO ship once in service after a projected US$1 million refurbishing.

With Cokaliong and others keeping the faith, the least government can do is reciprocate by addressing the concerns he raised. Maybe Cebu's two Cabinet members, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano and Press Secretary Cerge Remonde can bring the matter up for presidential intervention.