Written by Rey Anthony Chiu
Philippine Information Agency
Launching a missionary roll-on roll-off (RORO) route to link Jagna Bohol to Mambajao Camiguin is not a political gimmick.
Doubting Thomases saying that the Central Nautical Highway, especially the Bohol Camiguin segment was just launched to accommodate President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) and the government RoRo caravan's one-way trip could now be proven wrong.
This as Asia Marine Transport and Shipping (AMTS) Services put up its Super Shuttle Ferry 1 (SSF1) to serve the route daily starting May 8.
Earlier, critics said the Jagna-Camiguin RoRo route which PGMA and her cabinet tested in a caravan of tour buses and support vehicles is just for show for the route is one up to drain investors of precious fund.
Not for AMTS, which fielded SSF 12 and 8 to load the presidential party on their maiden voyage last week.
In an interview a few minutes before Marine Industry Authority (MARINA) issued the Certificate of Public Convenience to AMTS, Business Development Manager Lowell Elim said it would be a missionary route at first.
He however revealed that they did a study on the profitability prospects of the trips, which he said the market could respond in time.
In fact, he admitted that the company is also getting support from the government, one they count for sustainability as the market picks.
Regular Jagna-Mambajao RoRo and passenger trips leave Jagna at 1 pm daily and sails back to Jagna at 8 am, with fares at P300 per person, reports said.
Shippers with rolling cargo also expect that the trips would lower rates compared to commercial shipping lines.
The Strong Republic Nautical Highway, which was pulled out from the shelved Development Bank of the Philippines projects in 2002, boasts of slashed-transportation rates.
PGMA, while sharing the RoRo story in Cagayan de Oro said "in 2002, during a Cabinet planning conference in Clark, I presented a work program -- actually, eight work programs -- one of them was a program to reduce transport costs from the food basket of Mindanao to the large consuming market of Luzon.
She said DOTC Secretary Mendoza, then Agriculture Secretary Cito Lorenzo and Philippine Ports Authority head Al Cusi were seeking ways of lowering handling and wharfage costs of farm products from Mindanao to the greater market in Luzon.
She said she then instructed the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to lead in drawing various measures, including financing logistics, storage and port facilities in Mindanao to carry out the RO-RO concept.
President Arroyo then recounted how she started implementing the "obscure" RO-RO plan from a DBP Program with a P20-billion fund portfolio for long-term lending.
In 2003, the Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte to Dumaguete, Negros Oriental route, and the Roxas, Mindoro Oriental to Caticlan, Aklan route was completed and allowed people to enjoy Boracay with just P500 bus ride from Manila compared to the P5T plane fare," she said.
"So we launched the trip and we baptized what we rolled on -- what we traveled on -- as the Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SR-NH), a 900-kilometer seamless stretch of road and ports that cut travel time by 12 hours," she added.
Like what is probably an unprofitable Jagna-Camiguin route, the President said the Dapitan-Dumaguete (route), was also unprofitable in the beginning.
Dapitan-Dumaguete however grew with nine trips a day now, she claimed.
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