Shipping firms skip Maguindanao port over high cargo services

PARANG, Maguindanao – The country’s major shipping companies have decided to temporarily skip the cargo services of Polloc Port in Parang, Maguindanao following an increase in docking fees there.

Passenger vessels are not covered by the suspension of operation though.

The decision has alarmed officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao as the Polloc Port was the region’s major means of moving goods between its five-province territory and other areas.

Ali Macabalang, director of the ARMM’s Bureau of Public Information, said they were trying to intercede so that the operation of the shipping companies could conntinue.

Since November 30, cargo vessels of Negros Navigation, Lorenzo Shipping Lines, Sulpicio Shipping Lines and WG&A Shipping have not been docking at the Polloc Port because of the increase in fees from P650 to P13,000, Macabalang said.

The increase of rates came after the Polloc Port was declared a free port – which means that imported goods could be held or processed free of customs duties before they are re-exported.

Macabalang explained that since the re-opening of the Polloc Free Port, there were added services put in place by the private business sector to improve port services.

He said to remedy the situation, Regional Economic Zone Authority (Reza) director Rosslaini Sinarimbo has been coordinating with the Philippine United Harbor Pilot of the Philippines and the Philippine Shipping Lines Association.

Yu Beng Chua, president of Cotabato City’s business community, said the cargo vessel traffic should immediately resume because the suspension of operations would seriously affect prices of basic commodities.

Most goods being sold in the city come from Manila or Cebu and pass by the Polloc Port.

Mayor Ibrahim Ibay of Parang agreed about Chua’s projecting, adding that the effect might not be immediate but it “would be like domino.”

The Polloc Port is the biggest seaport in the ARMM and also serves as the region’s gateway to other parts of the country and neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia.