By Robert Wallack, AJOTThe Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) recently celebrated 31 years of service for domestic and international trade with numerous modernization programs to improve facilities and services in order to attract more business. Foremost among the improvements are the new international container terminal at Batangas Port, new computer information systems, and plans to complete access highways. The political turmoil surrounding President Arroyo is not stopping PPA from implementing development projects that are needed to become more competitive, internationally. The new Batangas Port is just over one hour South, by highway, from Manila. One of its advantages is less traffic congestion than Manila and less density. Even truck bans during peak traffic hours in Manila are not enough to alleviate delays. Approximately ten million people inhabit the metropolitan area, out of a national population of 81 million spread across 7,107 islands in the westernmost Pacific Ocean. Currently, PPA and the Republic of the Philippines government are promoting Batangas Port so that commercial enterprises and their ocean shipments are shifted away from Manila. Outside the Batangas Customs office is a framed mission statement entitled “Gateway to Progress.” It reads, “We will decongest metro Manila by attracting communities south towards CALABARZON and Batangas Port,” President Gloria M. Arroya, Republic of the Philippines. The PPA is starting the bidding process for a private terminal operator as part of the Batangas Port Development Project Phase II. The Phase II terminal and supporting facilities completed construction in July 2005. The leading contenders for the PPA contract are Asian Terminals Inc. and International Container Terminal Services, Inc., which already operate at Manila’s South Harbor, and West of North Harbor, respectively. The new container terminal berth is 350 meters along side, with a water depth of –13 meters in order to serve Panamax size container ships with expansion plans for post-Panamax size vessels. Additionally, supporting infrastructure includes a 30 meter span of crane rails with electric cable trucks for quayside gantry cranes, a reefer yard and container freight station, and a power station equipped with three sets of emergency generators. The gradual movement of cargo traffic away from Manila terminals to Batangas Port will take years. Terminal operators in Manila are seeking extensions to their existing contracts from PPA and have expansion plans at both harbors to handle a total of four million containers. However, road congestion will outweigh any of Manila’s terminal efficiency gains in favor of Batangas. In fact, “No factory can be built within a 50 kilometer radius of Manila,” said Cesar Tiutan, President, MOL Philippines, Inc. in a recent interview. In 2004, Manila was the top port in the Philippines with 2.7 million twenty foot equivalent unit (teu) containers, or 71% of the total, 3,785,421 teu container throughputs for both domestic; 1,761,922 teu; and foreign, 2,023,499 teu shipments. There was an increase of five percent in the total number of containers for the year over a 2003 count of 3.61 million teus. Moreover, containerized cargo is growing at 28.65% share of the total cargo as shippers prefer cargo in containers rather than conventional bulk and breakbulk, according to PPA’s website on Port statistics. The government and the PPA believe that modern information and communication technologies are central to attracting more foreign investment and ocean liners. The government is instituting an executive level office of Information and Communications Technology while PPA is radically changing business from a manual paper-intensive system to modern computer systems. “We outlined the problems told to us by internal operations, government agencies, shipping companies and cargo handling operations, and will provide integrated solutions to PPA’s nationwide computerization requirements,” said Ms. Amy Aquino, Manager, Strategic Planning,