The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is advancing digitalization to enhance passenger ticketing services, addressing half of the requirements for efficient local harbor operations.

The Electronic Terminal Management System (ETMS) will automate ticketing to reduce port congestion, especially during peak travel times.

According to PPA data, passenger traffic during Holy Week reached 2.29 million, concentrated over a few days.

The ETMS aims to streamline ticketing, alleviating the inconvenience faced by vacationers having to queue for tickets.

Operators of public conveyances, including inter-island vessels and buses, admitted that without a computerized system their basis for deploying more transport units was the jams at the terminals and ports.

The same problem haunts traders whose cargoes clog the ports due to the lack of a modern logistics system.

The Trusted Operator Program-Container Registry and Monitoring System (TOP-CRMS) was supposed to introduce an automated dispatch system that had won the recommendation of agencies, including the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA).

ARTA, however, backpedaled on its recommendation, apparently bowing to pressure from powerful groups that wanted the anti-smuggling weapon shot down.

In its about-face, ARTA indicated that “port congestion may not be used by the PPA (Philippine Port Authority) as a justification for government intervention” in support of the TOP-CRMS.

ARTA said the “PPA has provided concise and satisfactory evidence on all RIA sections. Hence, the RIA was assessed a good practice.”

TOP-CRMS also met ARTA’s criteria for cost-saving mechanisms, including the fees on container deposits and port access roads, and reduced the dwell time of empty container returns to less than 72 hours.

PPA General Manager Jay Santiago said then: “With the approval by ARTA, I believe the concern on ease of doing business has been sufficiently addressed.”

ARTA reversed its recommendation a day after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. warned in his second State of the Nation Address in 2023 that the days of smugglers and hoarders of agricultural products were numbered, as he identified the proposed Amendment of the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act as a priority legislation.

The law against agricultural smuggling hinges on the establishment of a digital system to check the influx of farm products into the country.

TOP-CRMS is a government-owned container monitoring system that provides a whole-of-government approach to tracking containers. It gives agencies access to information and even automates and streamlines their processes.

Features of the automated system preempt cargo diversion or diverting shipments to other warehouses with real-time container tracking.

Law enforcers could quickly identify where the shipments went, which port stakeholders said would eliminate the problem as all foreign-owned shipping containers, both laden and empty, would be monitored.

The technology would make it easier for investigators to identify and prosecute suspected smugglers.

The efficiency it would introduce in harbor services became its drawback, as several port groups, including smuggling syndicates, wanted to maintain the status quo.

The existing system provides the percentages and commissions from services that would be dispensed with as a result of digitalized port operations.

The TOP-CRMS could detect illegal contraband and prevent their entry through the ports. It could stop illegal drugs, including illicit arms shipments, from entering the country.

The system’s data could be shared with the agencies in charge of tax collection, law enforcement, import permit authorization, the trade department, anti-smuggling units, intelligence units, etc.

Such improvements in law enforcement is anathema to the syndicates and their cohorts in government who would forfeit the rich hoard their illegal activities bring.