The Philippine Ports Authority is set to unveil this year the country’s first dedicated port for cruise ships visiting the country. The project is in view of the Marcos Administration’s thrust to improve the country’s connectivity and to cater to the influx of foreign tourist arrivals.

“The dedicated cruise terminal will be inaugurated, hopefully, this October. It will be the first for the country and it will be in Siargao. Cruise passengers’ arrivals will be made convenient, as the passenger won’t need to transfer to smaller boats to bring them to the port,” PPA general manager Atty. Jay Daniel Santiago said over Straight Talk, the Daily Tribune’s weekly digital show.

Santiago said the dedicated port will be a one-stop-shop affair, with personnel of the Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Customs, and Bureau of Quarantine, as well as buses, on hand in one spot to serve the cruise passenger arrivals.

TIEZA to construct cruise terminal

Earlier, Santiago said the Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority will be tapped to construct the dedicated cruise terminal, as TIEZA has funding for tourism infrastructure development.

The Department of Tourism said this year, some 139 cruise port calls are expected in various parts of the country.

Based on latest data from the DoT, international visitor arrivals posted 2,002,304 from 1 January to 12 May 2023, already exceeding the entire year’s target for 2022 of 1.7 million foreign visitors.

 30 infra projects completed

Meanwhile, Santiago revealed that they are finishing at least 30 various seaport projects in time of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s first year this July.

“By the time po na matatapos po ni Pangulong Bongbong Marcos ‘yong kaniyang ah first year, mayro’n na naman po tayong tatapusin na 30 different seaport projects for the first year ni PBBM. Iyon po ang report po natin sa unang taon po ni Pangulong Bongbong Marcos,” he said.

(“By the time President Bongbong Marcos finishes his first term, we will be finishing 30 seaport projects. That will be what we will be reporting to President Marcos at the end of his first term in office.”)

Top five of the 30 infra projects to be completed by the PPA will be the expansion project at the Port of Abra De Ilog in Occidental Mindoro; breakwater construction in the Port of Nasugbu in Batangas; the improvement of Port of Isabela in Isabela City, Basilan; the recently unveiled Passenger Terminal Building at the Port of Calapan in Oriental Mindoro; and the construction of a back-up area at the Port of Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental.

The 30 new infrastructure projects are seen to greatly help in the country’s ease of doing business, travel and connectivity in the next years, as part of the Marcos Administration’s Build, Better, More.

Remittances

Earlier this month, the PPA reported remittances coming to a total of P4.44 billion in 2022, or nine percent higher than the P4.08 billion that it remitted in 2021.

Santiago said the PPA is gearing to surpass its 2022 dividend remittance for fiscal year 2023.

On the other hand, the PPA chief also announced that the agency has logged an 83 percent budget utilization rate in 2022, the highest in previous years despite challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic and economic headwinds.

Santiago said the 83 percent rate shows that PPA was able to maximize and implement responsible usage of its corporate budget with a huge increase in budget utilization rate in contrast with 71 percent in 2021 and 62 percent in 2020.

He said PPA is aiming to surpass its 83 percent utilization rate to 90 percent this year, as the agency would like to show the public its seriousness about getting the job done, without wasting any funds.