The Davao City council has blocked the auction of the P19-billion Davao Sasa Port Modernization Project under the public-private partnership program.
The Sangguniang Panglungsod ng Davao on Tuesday issued a resolution stopping the Sasa port bidding because of “the irregular procedure as well as the various questions raised against the Sasa Port Modernization project now being bid out without prior consultation and expressed approval of the local government as provided for by the Local Government Code.”
The City Council resolution cited Section 2 (c) of Republic Act 7160, or the Local Government Code, which provides that national agencies and offices should “conduct periodic consultations with appropriate local government units, non-governmental and people’s organizations and other concerned sectors of the community before any project or program is implemented in their respective jurisdictions.”
The resolution also based its objection to Section 27 of the same law, which states that “no project or program shall be implemented by government authorities unless the consultations mentioned in Section 2 (c) and 26 hereof are complied with, and prior approval of the sanggunian concerned is obtained.”
The Transportation Department or the PPP Center did not conduct any prior consultation regarding the bidding for the port project, according to the Davao City council.
The Transportation Department recently prequalified Asian Terminals Inc., International Container Terminal Services Inc., Bollore Africa Logistics, Singapore-based Portek International Pte. Ltd. and San Miguel Corp. for the Davao Sasa Port project.
The project also faces questions and opposition from the Davao City Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
“This unnecessary project was being forced upon Davao without the proper consultation. This resolution will now enable Davaoeños to contribute meaningfully toward defining the correct need and use of Sasa Port,” Alexander Valoria, president of the Anflocor Management and Investment Corp., said in a statement.
Davao-based businesses said there was no plan for break-bulk and bulk cargo, which is important for Davao City.
Sasa Port is actually designed for break bulk cargo vessels, which is vital to the economy of Davao City. About 500,000 metric tons of steel, wheat, fertilizer, motor vehicles, heavy equipment and other cargo not suitable for containers went through Sasa Port in 2014, according to data from the Philippine Ports Authority.
The Davao Integrated Port and Stevedoring Services Corp., an operator at the Sasa port, said the the current capacity of Sasa stood at 700,000 twenty-foot equivalent units. The yearly volume handled by DIPSSCOR, a subsidiary of ICTSI, was only 300,000 TEUs.
“At the DOTC and PPP Center projected growth rate of 6 percent, we will take 15 years to bring it to 700,000 TEUs. So why the rush?” DIPSSCOR president Jose Manuel De Jesus said.
