House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo urged the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) on Wednesday to stop charging weighbridge fees in the transport of goods through the roll-on, roll-off (Roro) shipping system.
Arroyo issued the statement following an oversight meeting of the House Committee on Transportation in Hilongos, Leyte, on Tuesday on the nautical highway and particularly the shipping cost of goods via Roro.
Arroyo said the House Committee on Transportation found out that the land travel portion of moving products has had the most significant impact on the cost of goods.
Weighbridge fees, she stressed, should be done away with to ease the costs faced by truckers and farmers, particularly those transporting agricultural goods through the Roro system from Mindanao to Luzon.
“As a result [of these fee], the agricultural goods have become almost prohibitively expensive by the time they enter the Luzon market,” said Arroyo.
“It’s an additional cost to the industry. So we have a resolution here that since it’s a PPA function, they should not charge that function. Because there are five charges that they can make and weighing charges are not part of it,” she said. “They [PPA] will continue to weigh, but they cannot charge.”
Allay
Meanwhile, Arroyo allayed fears that PPA collections will suffer a dent due to her proposal and maintained that it was an implementable measure.
“When they compared the price of conventional and Roro, it’s okay for a 10-wheeler. It’s cheaper. But when you come to 20 and 40, Roro becomes more expensive because of the land portion of the travel. So the truckers have to unbundle the cost in the land. That will be the work of the TWG [technical working group] of Congressman Manny Zubiri [of Bukidnon],” the Speaker stated.
Moreover, Arroyo said the panel also learned that the high cost of commissioning reefer vans is prohibitive to small farmers.
“As such, the committee identified compartmentable reefer vans so that products of multiple small farmers can be consolidated and the cost become more manageable,” she added.
Arroyo is pushing for the revival and expansion of the Roro transport system to decongest the airports and to lower the prices of goods in the country.
Arroyo launched the Roro system during her presidency in 2003, which connected the three main islands of the Philippines, to travel faster and increase trading among provinces.
The Roro was developed pursuant to Executive Order 170. It was developed to connect Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao to reduce the high cost of transporting people, goods and services through an integrated national highway system.
She said the government should revitalize and expand the Roro to further spur growth in the regions.