The Cebu Port Authority (CPA) is set to enter into an agreement with the Korean International Cooperation Agency to update the study of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) on relocating the Cebu International Port (CIP).
Undersecretary Aristotle Batuhan, who heads the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) maritime cluster, said there's a need to move the CIP because the facility, in its current location at the Cebu City port, won't be able to accommodate bigger ocean-going vessels in the future, especially if there's heavy siltation.
Jica conducted the feasibility study in the early part of the last decade upon the request of then general manager Jose Jake Marquez.
The study was worth USD3.3 million or equivalent to P165 million at that time.
The study recommended the 60-hectare area in Tayud, Liloan, Cebu as the site of the new international port because it is deep, it has a shoreline frontage, it is near Cebu City and the Mactan Economic Zone, it is accessible to transportation facilities and it has natural protection against strong winds.
It also recommended the CPA taking out a P9-billion loan with the Japan Bank for International cooperation to build the international port that will have six berthing area. The construction was supposed to start in 2006.
The project, though, was shelved by Marquez's successor Mariano Martinez.
The plan was revisited during the time of general managers Angelo Verdan and Vicente Suazo Jr. after the Mandaue City Government under Mayor Jonas Cortes banned prime movers and 10-wheeler trucks carrying container vans from the CIP from plying the city's major thoroughfares during the day.
The CIP currently handles 2,000 container vans of imported and export products per week.
Batuhan, who chairs the CPA Board as alternate to the DOTC secretary, said the agency is seriously considering a new international port to decongest traffic in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue.
Batuhan said the CPA and DOTC may consider entering into a package deal with an interested developer who will win the public bidding.
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