CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, April 27 --The Bureau of Customs (BOC)- Cagayan de Oro top officials led by District Collector John Simon and the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) led by port manager Engr. Isidro Butaslac Jr. initiated a dialogue with Mayor Oscar Moreno to discuss the proposed restoration of the past glory of the Macabalan Port which was once a haven of international cargo that heavily contributed to trade facilitation and revenue generation.
It has been 15 years that international containerized shipment in Macabalan Port, Cagayan de Oro was halted and transferred to Mindanao International Container Terminal in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental for cargo clearance.
This after various shipping lines expressed clamor for its restoration led by American President Lines (APL), which estimated the arrival of 300-400 containers per week in Macabalan Port.
Relative to this, the development is expected to boost the business and economic climate in the city as well as in Northern Mindanao. But with this development, the rise of the volume of cargoes will somehow cause inconvenience if not planned well as it will cause heavy traffic. That is why Bureau of Customs sought the help of the LGU to plan the traffic management and route of cargoes from Macabalan Port.
Meanwhile, Mayor Oscar Moreno expressed support for the proposed restoration plan but also suggested to expand operation of Mindanao International Container terminal as a long-term plan for the metropolization of Cagayan de Oro.
District Collector John Simon also opened the advantage of the restoration in terms of revenue for the LGU once the Mandanas doctrine will be fully implemented in 2022.
The Supreme Court granted in 2018 and reaffirmed in 2019 the petitions of Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas and former Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia Jr., under which LGUs’ IRA would come from 40 percent of collections of all national taxes from the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) revenue plus the BOC's collections of import duties and other taxes.
With the Mandanas ruling, the DBM estimates that first-class income provinces would have an increase of about P814 million in their IRA to P4.4 billion next year; highly urbanized cities, up by P394 million to P2.13 billion, and first-class municipalities, up by P187.62 million to P1.01billion.
The PPA has also started to upgrade its stacking capacity in Macabalan Port to cater the international cargo shipment and already allotted 23,000 square meters for its designated port area. (BOC10)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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