BY EUGENE Y.ADIONG
BACOLOD City – Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. has called for a renegotiation of the city government port currently managed by the Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. (BREDCO).
He considered this “an old but touchy issue” that must nevertheless be addressed.
BREDCO was granted rights to operate and manage the Bacolod Port under the 1961 agreement it had with the city government.
“I believe BREDCO should pay more to the city government than the rate it is now paying at P800,000,” Gamboa said.
As a matter of fact, the P20 million BREDCO pays the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) should be actually be paid to the city government, he added.
Gamboa issued the statements in the wake of BREDCO’s protestation against PPA-Pulupandan’s port project in Brgy. Banago.
BREDCO president Simplicio Palanca, in a letter to Vice Mayor Greg Gasataya and the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) dated June 10, complained that PPA-Pulupandan’s port project threatened the operations of the Bacolod Port.
The port in Brgy. Banago will directly compete with the operation of BREDCO, he warned.
A port privately managed, in this case by BREDCO, cannot compete with a port being managed by the government, Palanca averred.
The proposed port in Brgy. Banago is in close proximity, if not side-by-side with the Bacolod Port.
According to Palanca, a new port in Bacolod City will not only threaten revenues and taxes paid to the city by BREDCO but will eventually kill Bacolod Port’s operation, and in the end, it is the city of Bacolod that will suffer.
Palanca cited as example the existing Yap Port in Danao, Escalante City that ceased operations due to business losses because of the competition instituted by PPA at the Danao Port when it constructed roll on, roll off facilities.
Palanca also accused the PPA-Pulupandan of starting a roro operation in Brgy. Banago without the imprimatur of the SP on the port zone delineation.
Palanca claimed this was a “complete disregard and blatant violation of existing law…”
The port managed by PPA-Pulupandan has no concrete study (impact on private port operators such as BREDCO), Palanca further complained.
Previously, the Banago barangay council asked the SP Committee on Urban Poor chaired by Councilor El Cid Familiaran to hold public hearings on the effects of the PPA zonal delineation on the residents of Brgy. Banago.
This came on the heels of a resolution passed by the Bacolod City Development Council approving the request for endorsement of the PPA for a zonal delineation of Banago port./PN
