Amid its various port construction initiatives, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said they are one with the Department of Tourism’s dream to make the country a Cruise Capital in Asia, stating that they are on track to building more cruise terminals throughout the archipelago.
In a press conference last Tuesday during the kick-off of PPA’s 50th Anniversary celebration themed “50 Years of Linking Philippine Islands to the World,” PPA general manager Atty. Jay Daniel Santiago said they are planning to improve and construct more projects to modernize and boost the sea travel experience in the country.
Currently, among the ports under PPA that cater to cruise vessels include the Ports of Currimao in Ilocos Norte; Salomague in Ilocos Sur; Manila; Bohol, and El Nido in Palawan.
PPA vowed to develop more cruise terminals near the areas of tourist sites in Siargao, Camiguin, Boracay, Palawan and Puerto Galera.
One of the next big projects include the Port of Jubang in Dapa, Surigao del Norte, a significant new project reflecting the agency’s commitment to enhancing the country’s maritime infrastructure which aims to boost local and foreign tourism by accommodating cruise ships and making the island more accessible to international travelers.
Recognized for its world-renowned surfing spots, Siargao is set to benefit significantly from the enhanced connectivity.
“The DoT set a target that by 2028 or at the end of President Marcos Jr.’s term, we would have achieved passenger inflow of foreign tourists of about 12 million. On the other hand, the President disclosed that we target 28 million foreign tourists by 2028. So, we see that we must open various entrance channels for foreign tourists to penetrate our tourist attractions,” Santiago said.
“We see that our airline passengers are not enough to fill in the numbers, so we need to open other channels for entry, the reason why we are opening cruise terminals for cruise ships to directly enter the country’s localities.”
He said airlines can only accommodate roughly 200 passengers, while cruise vessels can accommodate 2,500 up to 3,000 international passengers or the equivalent of about 10 times of airline passengers at a time in one location.
“As much as possible, the PPA provides berthing facilities for mammoth cruise vessels that can enter ports, for the convenience of cruise passengers. A cruise vessel can only last 10 hours so we want to give their passeWngers a seamless transfer and roam around a tourist destination,” he said.
On top of expanding berthing facilities, Santiago said the PPA would place welcome facilities which include a more convenient processing of immigration and quarantine documents of tourists.
“Utilizing these upgraded facilities will show cruise operators that the Philippines is true to its distinction as the best cruise destination in Asia,” he said.
By 2028, Santiago said the PPA is also expecting the completion of big-ticket maritime projects with five projects in Luzon, six in the Visayas, and three port projects in Mindanao.
The Philippine government, through the DoT, is eyeing to make the Philippines to be Asia’s top cruise destination.
In 2023, the Philippines was hailed by the London-based World Cruise Awards, the sister award-giving body of World Travel Awards, as 2023’s Asia’s Best Cruise Destination — the country’s first time to win the award.
Digitization push remains in the PPA radar
Santiago maintained that it would not stop clInching its dream of digitized port operations in the country.
To recall, two major digitization projects of PPA are stopped for implementation by the Department of Transportation: the electronic terminal management system (ETMS) project, which features unified electronic ticketing capabilities, and the Trusted Operator Program-Container Registry and Monitoring System (TOP-CRMS) that was deemed to bring huge benefit against high unregulated charges in logistics costs such as container deposit and missing empty containers.
“The value of the suspended projects, which could have been implemented already, emerged over the past year and months. We saw that the problems that could have been resolved by those projects persist and continue to be a burden for port users and passengers,” Santiago said.
He said issues that remain in ports are empty returns, high and unregulated charges on container deposits for the part of the deferred TOP-CRMS, while for the ETMS is the long queues of irate passengers securing their sea travel tickets.
“For the ETMS, I think the Department of Transportation and the Maritime Industry Authority have recognized the value of the system and created a new project steering committee to adopt the online ticketing system that was started by the PPA. We could have reached the situation that the ETMS is up and running, benefiting the passengers,” he maintained.
“Hopefully, we will be able to see that all these digitization efforts will be accepted and adopted. Maybe the projects were ahead of their time, but time has finally caught up with the projects. I hope the port stakeholders, including the decision-makers, will finally realize the value of those projects and accept and adopt them,” he stated.
Under TOP-CRMS, only container deposit insurance and monitoring fees worth P980 and P3,408 empty container handling service fees must be paid by importers compared to almost P30,000 container deposits in the current existing system.
While for the ETMS, it was aimed to “provide a digitized and systematized process of recording and simultaneous submission of passenger manifest and vessel voyage information which can effectively be scaled and extended to support future phases of the terminal management process at the PPA port terminals.”
The ETMS system intends to strengthen security and safety standards by mitigating vessel overloading and controlling the flow of regulated goods and cargoes using PPA port facilities and providing standard stakeholders’ registries, credentialing, licensing, and accreditation monitoring.
