Regulator Philippine Ports Authority will intervene and require Manila North Harbour Port Inc. to seek its approval to handle foreign cargoes that would in effect nullify a series of memoranda issued by Customs commissioner Alberto Lina granting MNHPI the status of an international container port, port logistics publication Portcalls quoting an anonymous PPA source said.
According to the Portcalls source, “MNHPI needs PPA approval to handle foreign cargoes as well as approval for the [cargo-handling] tariff [that will be levied at the port].”
Portcalls said its PPA source insisted that North Harbor “is owned by PPA and MNHPI is only the cargo-handling operator.”
MNHPI’s 25-year contract for the development, management, operation and maintenance of North Harbor was granted by PPA in 2010.
Portcalls said that its source at the PPA stressed that MNHPI’s permit “is only for domestic operations.”
“Any operation not stipulated in the 25-year contract is a direct violation which will merit cancellation of [the MNHPI] contract with PPA even if they are armed with a BOC permit,” the Portcalls source said.
It said that before MNHPI took over the operation and management of North Harbor, the port had handled bulk and breakbulk foreign cargoes and had its own complement of customs offices since it is a sub-port of Manila International Container Port.
“Some of the offices were, however, transferred when MNHPI took over since by then the port no longer processed foreign cargoes, except for transhipments,” it said.
Lina signed Customs Memorandum Order11-2016 and CMO 12-2016 on June 2, effectively allowing North Harbor operator Manila North Harbour Port Inc. to handle foreign cargoes.
The subject of CMO 11-2016 was the “Acceptance of foreign vessels and cargos at the Manila North Habor” while CMO 12-2016 was the “Operational Guidelines for the sub-port of North Harbor.”
The two CMOs were preceded by a December 2015 BOC order that awarded MNHPI a certificate of authority to operate as an authorized customs facility.
As ACF, MNHPI can handle and store imported goods that are immediately discharged from an arriving airplane, vessel and other means of international transport.
PPA has the mandate to allow foreign and domestic vessels to dock at a port, the Portcalls source said.
Portcalls also quoted its source as saying port operators have to seek PPA approval for a cargo-handling tariff schedule at the port to which they were given a contract which applies to MNHPI.