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HCPTI has no money to modernize North Harbor, critics say

Sunday, 08 February 2009 23:24

The Philippine Association of Migrant Workers (PAMWA) has raised concerns over the financial capability of the developer proposing to modernize the Manila North Harbor in partnership with Metro Pacific Investment Corp.

The Harbor Centre Port Terminals Inc. (HCPTI) headed by Reghis Romero has vowed to turn the country’s largest port into another Singapore once it is allowed to participate in the 25-year North Harbor Modernization Project.

But PAMWA spokesman Engr. Nelson Ramirez said in a statement, “That is an empty promise given the track record of HCPTI in operating its own private port, the Manila Harbor Centre, for the last 10 years.”

The group has questioned the capacity of HCPTI to invest in North Harbor, alleging the firm has not made any substantial spending for its own private port in the last 10 years. It said the the harbor mobile crane that the firm bought more than five years ago has been sitting idle at the port.

Moreover, the group alleged the firm “is currently delayed with its financial obligations to almost all its contractors, be it their manpower agencies, their suppliers, or other port service companies.”

“As a matter of fact, the association of tugboats and barges in the Port of Manila is already refusing to service HCPTI’s requirements because the firm has yet to settle their past dues to many of its members,” Ramirez said.

The group also alleged that HCPTI had to get funding from various government agencies, including the Social Security System, Government Security and Insurance System, the National Home Mortgage and Financing Corp. and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, when it first developed the Manila Harbor Centre more than a decade ago.

The group also has criticized the firm because “contrary to its commitment to the Philippine Ports Authority to lower cargo handling rates, HCPTI has arbitrarily raised rates in some occasions, [which are] even costlier at times than other government ports in Manila.”

“We also have sources that say HCPTI has been trying to impose its whims on its locators at the Manila Harbor Centre with reckless abandon by using berth allocations of vessels to blackmail their tenants or locators to give in to their ridiculous demands,” Ramirez added.

Last week, the PAMWA published an open letter to President Gloria Arroyo via four major newspapers, asking the country’s chief executive to look into possible machinations in the bidding of the North Harbor Modernization Project.

“The last thing the Philippines wants at this point is to validate the findings of the World Bank that corruption in government infrastructure projects happens right at the project bidding. Blacklisting is such a tough word; it can actually leave a bad taste in the mouth,” the group stated in its open letter.