by magnolia_eic | Jun 28, 2010 | Local News / Bohol Balita
SO many things to do, so little time.
Forty-eight hours away from walking out of the palace, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo still had her hands full.
In a brief visit to Bohol after leap-frogging from Manila to Ilo-ilo and then to Ubay, Bohol, the working president still needs to let people know that the government is not just coasting to a stop until the next administration picks up the speed.
With time running short and still instilling the government’s dream for Bohol, PGMA used two persons’ help.
Instead of speaking the benefits of the rehabilitated Ubay Roll-On Roll Off (RORO) Port in Bohol’s northeastern side, a construction worker and a businessman did it for her.
William Tadle, a heavy equipment operator of the construction company rehabilitating the P364M port said he had fed his family and found the work he needed to get through life decently.
Ubay port construction phase 1 was done when the country suffered from fiscal scrimp brought about by collapsing world economies in early 2009.
The project, contributed immensely to the government’s comprehensive livelihood and emergency employment program by allowing local employment, said Ubay town information Officer Virginia Dupa.
Tadle and many other workers constructed the port back up area, reinforced concrete pier, roll on roll off ramp, dredging and disposal, port mooring and fendering systems installation and port lighting facilities installation.
In fact, even after phase I, Tadle was still hired to lend heavy equipment support for the construction of additional back up area and thus make a 1.7 hectares more of port working area, according to Marra Builders, the winning bidder for the mega infrastructure project.
On the other hand, Ruben Hamili, a Cebu based agri food supplier said the port helped in getting their hog-lines and poultry feeds supply in time to their outlets in Bohol.
Then, the shipment of stocks from Cebu to their outlets in Bohol takes about four to five days, now its two days or even overnight, assuring their customers of the freshest products, he said in Cebuano in front of the President and some crowd of 3,000.
With the construction of a wider back-up cargo storage areas, businessmen like Ruben Hamili now have the option to transport goods right at their customers doorsteps or have them stocked at the port storage areas to cut on transport costs, says a project media briefer.
The Philippine Ports Authority funds Ubay Port, a component of the country’s Strong Republic Nautical Highways and makes travel by goods and people across the islands fast and affordable while allowing the growth of local tourism.
Ubay Port serves RoRo vessels plying the Ubay-Hilongos, Ubay-Maasin and Ubay-Bato routes, while it opens the possibility of Ubay-Dinagat, Ubay-Nasipit and Ubay-Baybay.
The President, who was not expected to speak in Ubay engagement, gamely took the microphone and asked the two guys to tell the people their stories.
Going out of the palace on Wednesday bearing a stain of criticism for corruption, records would show that the Arroyo Administration has built more that two pervious administrations combined, states Ganito Tayo Noon material printed in major national dailies late last year. (PIA-Bohol)
by Misael | May 9, 2008 | Features
LAUNCHING a missionary roll-on roll-off (RORO) route to link Jagna Bohol to Mambajao Camiguin is not a political gimmick.
Doubting Thomases saying that the Central Nautical Highway, especially the Bohol Camiguin segment was just launched to accommodate President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) and the government RoRo caravan’s one-way trip could now be proven wrong.
This as Asia Marine Transport and Shipping (AMTS) Services put up its Super Shuttle Ferry 1 (SSF1) to serve the route daily starting May 8.
Earlier, critics said the Jagna-Camiguin RoRo route which PGMA and her cabinet tested in a caravan of tour buses and support vehicles is just for show for the route is one up to drain investors of precious fund.
Not for AMTS, which fielded SSF 12 and 8 to load the presidential party on their maiden voyage last week.
In an interview a few minutes before Marine Industry Authority (MARINA) issued the Certificate of Public Convenience to AMTS, Business Development Manager Lowell Elim said it would be a missionary route at first.
He however revealed that they did a study on the profitability prospects of the trips, which he said the market could respond in time.
In fact, he admitted that the company is also getting support from the government, one they count for sustainability as the market picks.
Regular Jagna-Mambajao RoRo and passenger trips leave Jagna at 1 pm daily and sails back to Jagna at 8 am, with fares at P300 per person, reports said.
Shippers with rolling cargo also expect that the trips would lower rates compared to commercial shipping lines.
The Strong Republic Nautical Highway, which was pulled out from the shelved Development Bank of the Philippines projects in 2002, boasts of slashed-transportation rates.
PGMA, while sharing the RoRo story in Cagayan de Oro said “in 2002, during a Cabinet planning conference in Clark, I presented a work program — actually, eight work programs — one of them was a program to reduce transport costs from the food basket of Mindanao to the large consuming market of Luzon.
She said DOTC Secretary Mendoza, then Agriculture Secretary Cito Lorenzo and Philippine Ports Authority head Al Cusi were seeking ways of lowering handling and wharfage costs of farm products from Mindanao to the greater market in Luzon.
She said she then instructed the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to lead in drawing various measures, including financing logistics, storage and port facilities in Mindanao to carry out the RO-RO concept.
President Arroyo then recounted how she started implementing the “obscure” RO-RO plan from a DBP Program with a P20-billion fund portfolio for long-term lending.
In 2003, the Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte to Dumaguete, Negros Oriental route, and the Roxas, Mindoro Oriental to Caticlan, Aklan route was completed and allowed people to enjoy Boracay with just P500 bus ride from Manila compared to the P5T plane fare,” she said.
“So we launched the trip and we baptized what we rolled on — what we traveled on — as the Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SR-NH), a 900-kilometer seamless stretch of road and ports that cut travel time by 12 hours,” she added.
Like what is probably an unprofitable Jagna-Camiguin route, the President said the Dapitan-Dumaguete (route), was also unprofitable in the beginning.
Dapitan-Dumaguete however grew with nine trips a day now, she claimed.
Moreover, she added that the Dapitan – Batangas route cut down the travel time to 12 hours and allowed Mindanao products to hit Manila markets faster. (rachiu/PIA)
