THE Philippine Coastwise Shipping Association (PCSA) wants the Marcos administration to leave behind a network of expressways across the Visayas and Mindanao, along with an end to roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) terminal fees, arguing that high logistics costs are driving up food prices and weakening business competitiveness.
Speaking at the group’s general membership meeting, chairman Lucio Lim Jr. urged the National Government to commission a feasibility study for expressway corridors in the two regions.
“When logistical costs rise, food prices rise. When logistical costs increase, businesses become less competitive,” Lim said. He described logistics as a national development, inflation and quality-of-life issue, not merely an industry concern.
Eight corridors
The PCSA, which held its meeting under the theme “One Nation, One Network: Lower Logistical Costs, Lower Inflation,” proposed eight corridors, ranging from 121 to 406 kilometers.
They include a 230-kilometer route from Bogo City to Santander in Cebu, a 214-kilometer link from Caticlan in
Aklan to Iloilo City, and a 216-kilometer road connecting Bacolod and Dumaguete. The others run from Calapan to Roxas in Oriental Mindoro, Dapitan to Zamboanga City, Aroroy to Esperanza in Masbate, Allen in Samar to Liloan in Southern Leyte, and Surigao City to Davao City.
Lim said the study could be funded through the public-private partnership program or multi-year congressional appropriations. He cited the 420-kilometer South Luzon Expressway Toll Road 5, which will link Lucena to Matnog and is expected to cut travel time from 15 hours to five, as an example.
RoRo fees under fire
The group also wants RoRo terminal fees scrapped. Lim estimated they make up 5 to 10 percent of the freight cost of a 10-wheeler truck, and as much as 15 percent on some short-haul routes. Operators and shippers pay upfront, but the costs can reach consumers through higher prices for food and construction materials.
The PCSA wants RoRo vessels treated as bridges between road networks and the ports as extensions of the national highway system. It proposes shifting the management and maintenance of RoRo ports outside the Philippine Ports Authority and Cebu Port Authority base ports to the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Lim said a standard RoRo port could be built for about P200 million and maintained at low cost, and pointed to Japan and Norway as countries that treat such facilities as highway infrastructure.
He also criticized the current process, in which passengers and rolling-cargo operators must queue inside ports to pay fees separately after buying tickets from shipping lines.
Open questions
The PCSA did not say how the government would replace the revenue now collected through terminal fees or pay for port operations.
For businesses, the benefits would hinge on whether the expressways prove feasible and financeable, whether fee changes are actually implemented, and whether the state can maintain the infrastructure without shifting costs elsewhere. / CAV, MVG