Unmoved Mindanao products in Davao City seaports rotting for lack of cargo vessels
By ROGER M. BALANZA
Mindanao is facing a serious economic crisis in wake of the tragedy of the Princess of the Stars sinking, as tons and tons of its products for shipment to key Philippine cities rot in warehouses for lack of vessels to load them out.
Following the tragedy, the government has ordered all Sulpicio passenger vessels grounded, as marine authorities probe the disaster. Unfortunately, the passenger vessels, of 13 gross tonnage, double up as cargo vessels, serving as key transporters for Mindanao goods.
In Davao City ports, stacks of containers with finished agri-products lay in painful wait for vessels in container yards. In traders’ warehouses, bags of corn are piled up to the roof unmoved with corn-eating Cebu and other Visayan cities, depending on supplies of the cereal from Mindanao, facing hunger.
Economic disaster
A plywood manufacturer in Bunawan, a major supplier to the Visayan construction industry, has closed down because it cannot ship out the goods. Central Mindanao traders have stopped buying products for local exports, as Davao City shipping companies refuse to take cargo, for lack of bottoms.
The government-owned Sasa wharf in Davao City, the major shipping point for agri-products from Southern and Central Mindanao, has become a virtual ghost port for lack of vessels, a painful departure from its old fame as one of the busiest posts in Mindanao.
With the suspension of operation of Sulpicio Lines vessels in wake of the sinking of Princess of the Stars, produce in Central and Southern Mindanao are either rotting or sold cheap for lack of vessels to ferry them to Cebu or Manila.
Domino effect
Failure of Mindanao products to reach consumers in the Visayas has prompted the Cebu City Chamber of Commerce and Industry to pass a resolution urging Malacanang to lift the suspension on the Sulpicio vessels, as prices of basic commodities and construction materials supplied by Mindanao producers drastically went up in wake of the suspension.
In Iloilo City, the construction industry which relies on Mindanao-produced materials, is facing a crisis with wood and plywood price shooting up for lack of supply.
“Cebuanos would go hungry if corn shipment from Mindanao comes rare,” said an official of the Cebu City business chamber.
In Digos City in Davao del Sur, a corn trader supplying Cebu said lack of vessels to bring his goods to the Visayan premier city, forced him not to buy from farmers.
We have the supply, but I could not buy, because I could not ship them out, he said. The corn farmers, he said, are suffering a crisis more worse than the sinking tragedy, adding the crisis involves thousands of corn farmers.
An appeal to GMA
Traders and producers are appealing to President Gloria Arroyo to lift the suspension of Sulpicio lines passenger ferries, as basic commodities like rice and corn pile up in warehouses for lack of bottoms. With the lack of vessels, traders have stopped buying agricultural produce, dealing a serious blow to farmers.
Three weeks ago, the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) ordered the suspension as an investigation is ongoing on the sinking of the ferry carrying more than 800 passengers, off Sibuyan Island at the height of typhoon Frank.
In Davao City, a single Sulpicio container ship is operating, leaving tons of cereals and other agricultural products unmoved in warehouses. The company, with only one vessel running, also has started refusing to accept cargoes including bananas, a perishable major export, for shipment to Cebu and Manila.
SOS
As this developed, traders from Central Mindanao and Southern Mindanao using Davao ports to ship out products, are planning to seek intervention of their local government officials to ask President Arroyo to lift the order.
In Davao City, traders said they would bring up the crisis to the 8th Davao Business Conference to be held today at the Davao Conventions Center.
The conference would tackle an 11-point resolution of the Davao City Business Chamber of Commerce that contains suggestions on how the Davao City government could further improve the city’s business climate.
“The lack of vessels to ferry our produce is another catastrophe that could wreak havoc on our economy,” said a Davao City businessman, engaged in trading and exporting of agricultural produce to Cebu and Manila, who is gathering traders to bring up the crisis at today’s business conference.
Not enough
Shipping industry sources here said only three cargo vessels, two from Lorenzo Shipping and one from Sulpicio, are currently operating. A source said the vessels of smaller tonnage come to ports only every twelve days, and would leave cargo backlogs that could become an economic nightmare.
Another source said Manila may not be aware about the economic crisis now hounding Mindanao products destined to Cebu and Manila, which relies on Mindanao for most of its needs including rice, corn and other basic commodities.
Lift the suspension
The Davao City trader suggested the suspension may be lifted and allow the Sulpicio passenger vessels to operate as a cargo vessel, to stave off an economic disaster in Central and Southern Mindanao that use Davao City ports for their shipment of agricultural and finished products to other cities in the Visayas and Luzon.
“We are facing a disaster that could affect hundreds of thousands of Mindanaoans with the suspension of the Sulpicio vessels,” he said.
A Sulpicio source said it is committed to serve the public and the Princess of the Stars tragedy, an unforeseen event, should not be taken as an argument to deny the shipping company its obligation to pursue its corporate mission to the country.
Win-win solution
If there is to be an investigation, we are suggesting as it is in progress, that as a key player in the development of Mindanao, that we be allowed to run our vessels as cargo carriers so as not to cause more damage to the economy, said the official, who is based in Davao City, the company’s main headquarters for its Southern and Central Mindanao operations.
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