By Manuel T. Cayon / Mindanao Bureau Chief
DAVAO CITY—The Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport) described as “irritating” local laws on easing trade and agriculture production that it said continues to limit production and exportation.
In a speech during the Mindanao Exporters’ Congress here on Thursday, Philexport President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. said the monopoly on sea transport also connived to pin down the growth of export, and prevented goods from Mindanao and the Visayas to reach the National Capital Region and to access the international market.
Ortiz-Luis also said that shortly after President Aquino signed the amendment to the cabotage law, the export sector already needed “critical intervention” in the area of local government regulations.
“This is a critical intervention because while tariff issues are being eliminated globally, we are faced with nontariff issues that are more formidable, as they come in various expensive shapes and forms,” he said.
Ortiz-Luis did not elaborate as he hurriedly left after the speech.
Stephen Antig, president of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (Pbgea), said his sector’s production expansion has been impeded by some local governments that prohibit land and crop conversions, such as in Soccsksargen, Central Mindanao and Bukidnon.
Antig also refused to say that the move may have been prompted by concerns of local agriculture offices to protect their grain production. But he said there were indeed unsatisfied targeting by banana companies to expand production.
Ferdinand Maranon, regional president of Philexport, corroborated the Pbgea claim and said, “There’s also a move in Compostela Valley that imposed P5,000 for each specified production area over 200 hectares in size.”
“There are also local governments that exact taxes on the transport of goods,” he added.
Ortiz-Luis said that domestic regulations were only part of the issues that have stymied the growth of Filipino exporters. It included the decades-long protection to the cabotage law that shielded inefficient and expensive sea transport from getting competition from foreign shippers.
Ortiz-Luis also appealed to Malacañang for President Aquino to sign the congressional legislations on Foreign Ships Co-loading Act, which amended the cabotage law and another law on Philippine Export Competitiveness, that Ortiz-Luis said would be landmark legislations. He said he would like the President to sign these before he makes his State of the Nation Address.
His edited speech deleted this portion, but retained nonetheless the appeal of the export sector to Congress to speed up the crafting of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
Ortiz-Luis said this piece of legislation would help trade facilitation, another trade and export policy issue that has contributed to the slowdown this year of exports by 17.4 percent to only $4.89 billion in the first five months of this year. Last year export performance notched $5.93 billion over the same period.
Customs Commissioner Albert D. Lina also pitched for the same law to aid the Bureau of Customs in what he announced was a crucial battle against embedded corruption in the agency.