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"Good governance rests on three pillars. |
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Culpable
Violations to EO 170 |
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Must the Philippine Ports Authority and
the Cebu Ports Authority represented by their respective board members as
well as other government officials that are shown to have participated in the
non-implementation of Executive Order 170 (EO 170) and its implementing rules
and regulations be held liable for their individual and collective acts for
violating the provisions of the EO? Executive Order 170 entitled "PROMOTING PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION AND
INVESTMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATION OF THE ROAD ROLL-ON/ROLL-OFF
TERMINAL SYSTEM" was signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in January 23, 2003 and announced publicly during
the 56th anniversary celebration of the foundation of the Development Bank of
the Philippines." Some four years after its enactment, the
President still has to send her secretaries out to "fast-track" the
EO implementation. Why has there been a snail-paced implementation of
the EO? A news analysis of why the EO was issued
was made by by CV Chikiamco from the Manila Standard. In his column
entitled "Lateral
thinking", Mr. Chikiamco had this to say: "Here is where lateral thinking
comes in. Instead of directly confronting the powerful shipping companies and
stevedoring and labor groups, President Arroyo issued an executive order
declaring ro-ro terminals, which use the seas as transport lanes, as part of
the national highway system. Ergo, if the ro-ro terminals are part of the
national highway system, they need not be approved by the Philippine Ports
Authority and subjected to all kinds of regulations and regulatory costs. The
EO effectively made truckers competitors to shippers. (However, in certain
goods like grains and other commodities handled in bulk, shippers will always
have the edge over truckers.) " That the EO 170 RRTS facilities have not
multiplied is a strong indication that perhaps, the President's "lateral
thinking", according to Mr. Chikiamco has failed. Whether it is
indeed the "powerful shipping companies and stevedoring and labor
groups" that have been the stumbling blocks to the implementation of the
EO still has to be proven. However, there have been persons and
agencies that have been identified as having violated the provisions of EO
170. This can easily be proven by the documentary evidence and
newspaper reports about these violations. Some seven months after the EO was
signed, a letter signed on September 5, 2003
by LGU representatives, ship operators, and logistics providers had this to
say to the President: "What we see have been large
newspaper ads heralding the operation of one big shipping company on what is
called “long-haul” roro, but we do not see it as part of the RRTS as
envisioned in EQ 170. Before any facility may be considered as part of the
RRTS, EO 170 mandates that the facility has to be operated by an LGU or a
private entity. No part of any existing PPA or CPA port has been able to meet
this requirement; hence, no RRTS facility can be identified up to now. Meanwhile, some eager participants
have started to implement their plans, but these are slowed down due to a
lack of proper guidelines in pursuing the projects. May we therefore request
from you to instruct the agencies concerned, particularly the Philippine
Ports Authority and the Cebu Ports Authority, to issue clear guidelines on
how private terminal projects may be given a go signal to proceed under EO
170 and become part of the RRTS?" The clamor for clear and specific
guidelines for the implementation of EO 170 was brought to the attention of a
DOTC official. As a result, Undersecretary Agustin Romulo Bengzon sent
out a directive dated November 21, 2003
and addressed to all implementing agencies to render a report on their
activities regarding the implementation of the EO.
By February 10, 2004, Secretary Saludo of
the Presidential Management Staff sent a letter specifying five items claimed
to be accomplishments towards the implementation of EO 170. All five
items were debunked and in a letter reply sent to the PMS and dated March 1, 2004, explanations were made why such
claims were not proof of any serious implementation of the EO. See also(A, B, and C). Unable to refute the charges that the
Office of the President was being fed with hogwash by the reporting agencies,
the matter was referred to the DOTC Secretary on March 8, 2004. At about the same time, the Regional Development
Council of Region 7 sent a resolution dated March
19, 2004 to the
DOTC Secretary, confirming observations relative to the non-implementation of
the Executive Order. Having gone a full circle, the same office
at DOTC that was ignored by the PPA, CPA and MARINA when it requested for a
report on the implementation of EO 170 previously some seven months ago or
promises to apprise the complainants if and when there are further
developments by referring the PMS letter back to the agencies being
complained about. This memo sent from the office of Usec Bengzon
dated April 5, 2004, clearly indicates how much attention and
urgency the matter of implementing the President's EO 170 has received from
all officials concerned. Signed in January 23, 2003, Presidential
Executive Order 170 was treated like a basketball by its implementers
one-and-a-half years later. When the pressure for an accounting on the
implementation of the EO mounts, the Manger of the Cebu Ports Authority (CPA)
makes a barren attempt at explaining his accomplishments and as a final
defense, bares the collective contempt of the implementers on the EO's spirit
of allowing greater private sector participation in the RRTS. His
letter of April 26,
2004 arrogantly claims: "Moreover, the Prior to this letter of the CPA GM, it
was reported in a news item dated March 14,
2004, that CPA had taken over a private port project in "But the contractor said .... and that: "CPA also
disapproved Goldland’s detailed development plan earlier approved by the
City. The CPA showed its own Roro layout plan to Goldland last December
2003.", eleven months
after EO 170 was signed by the President. Does the CPA GM's statement lay the
predicate as to why the slow pace of implementing the EO is evident?
Nowhere in the official implementing guidelines issued is there
any mention or hint that selection of private investors should include an assessment
as to whether they qualify to run the ports as private facilities. When
people participate and put up their share of the project equity, it is
presumed that they know what they are doing, not otherwise as claimed by the
CPA GM as being also held by another implementing agency. The PPA
perhaps? Having finally enough evidence on the
reluctance of implementing agencies to implement EO 170, a formal complaint
dated July 14, 2004, was lodged against
the implementers of EO 170 with the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission
(PAGC). The complaint rounded off all efforts to exhaust all
administrative remedies open to the petitioners. The attempt to get the observations
through to the President did not end with the administrative complaint filed
with the PAGC. On October 28, 2004,
the DOTC Secretary was sent a letter informing him of the misinformation
reported to him by the agencies under him that were charged to implement EO
170. On
this same day, the President is reported to have made some pronouncements
tending to be violative of her own Executive Order. She was made to
announce a fifty% cut in the wharfage fees charged at the ports of Also, in April 8, 2005 a Pushed to do something about the lack of
guidelines, the PPA announced on January 11,
2005, two years after the signing of EO 170, that the PPA guidelines for
private sector participation in the operation and investment in RRTS
facilities was approved by the PPA Board on December 15, 2004. Other documentary evidence against the
CPA and PPA for violation of EO 170 provisions are available at the "Archives" |
1 President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, Keynote address to the Intemational Conference on
Institutionalizing
Strategies to Combat Corruption: Lessons from East Asia,
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