JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II on Sunday assured the Duterte administration will honor existing contracts left by the previous administration, as they should be accorded with presumption of regularity.
Aguirre, as Department of Justice (DOJ) secretary, exercises administrative supervision over the Office of Government Corporate Counsel and attached agency of the DOJ.
“As of the present, we are to honor existing contracts. The sanctity of contracts must be respected,” Aguirre said in a text message.
He, however, added that such assurance is without prejudice to possible review, if necessary.
“Because we just assumed office, there is no directive yet to review any particular contract,” he said.
Port stakeholders immediately welcomed this development as they expressed optimism in doing business with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) under the administration of President Duterte.
They said the Duterte administration’s move to honor contracts came just in time for the local port and logistics business, which declined in terms of global competitiveness based on a World Bank study.
Port stakeholders earlier complained against a series of BOC directives issued by former Customs Commissioner Alberto D. Lina since last year as having introduced uncertainties to live contracts with the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).
They said these BOC memoranda encroached on the PPA’s regulatory authority in licensing port operators and which port stakeholders also considered as a midstream change in rules.
The World Bank’s Logistic Performance Index (LPI) biennial report, entitled “Connecting to Compete 2016: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy,” the Philippines fell 14 places this year to 71st place out of 160 countries. The country ranked 57th in 2014.
The country scored 2.89 this year, which was a huge decline since 2010, when it scored 3.14 and ranked 44th.
The report ranks countries based on key criteria of logistics performance, including border clearance efficiency, infrastructure quality, timeliness of shipments, ease of arranging competitively priced shipments, competence and quality of logistics services, and ability to track and trace consignments.
“Logistics performance depends on the availability to traders of reliable supply chains and predictable service delivery,” the World Bank report said.
The Philippines’ score in the WB report dropped in all criteria, except in timeliness of shipments, which jumped to 70th this year from 90th in 2014.