SIMIC

FILIPINO trade groups want the Philippine Ports Authority Administrative to scrap its mandate to register containers because of the delays and costs it will impose, reports the Manila Times.
Specifically, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport), the Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines (SCMAP), and the Export Development Council (EDC) - seek to scrap PPA Administrative Order 04-2021 and its Implementing Operational Guidelines.
In a January 10 letter to PPA general manager Jay Daniel Santiago, the groups expressed their "vehement opposition to the implementation and strongly recommends the immediate end to the measure.
The order will only bring a regulatory burden to all affected stakeholders while violating the Ease of Doing Business Law, the groups said.
"It is with great dismay that the arguments and opposition that we, along with the brokers, truckers, the shipping lines and other affected stakeholders, seem to have fallen on deaf ears when the PPA proceeded with this latest regulation," they said.
Last May, 14 industry groups issued a solidarity statement seeking the "immediate revocation" of the policy, as it "threatens to cripple the transport and logistics industries and the national economy as a whole."
PPA AO 04-2021 sets the policy for the registration and monitoring of containers entering and leaving PPA ports, including the scheduling, loading, unloading, release and movement of all containers.
It aims to generate a record of accountability to "enable PPA to monitor the movement of containers from the time of entry, discharge, return and storage, and re-export," with the objective of preventing smuggling.
Further, the order "shall apply to all containers originating from foreign ports that will be unloaded at government and/or private ports under the administrative jurisdiction of the PPA."