The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) is renewing efforts to decouple the regulatory and commercial functions of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to eliminate the conflict of interest embedded in its mandate.
This, along with other logistics-related measures, forms part of Philexport’s legislative agenda for the new Congress, a document shared with Malaya Business Insight on Wednesday showed.
Other proposals include the Customs Amnesty Bill and the International Maritime Trade Competitiveness Bill.
In an interview on Wednesday, Philexport President Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said the group has long advocated separating the PPA’s regulatory functions from its developmental ones.
In the previous Congress, House Bills 4317 and 1400 were filed, calling for the conversion of the PPA into the Philippine Ports Corp., which would handle the authority’s commercial operations, while its regulatory functions would be vested in the Maritime Industry Authority.
Ortiz-Luis noted that the PPA currently receives a share of cargo-handling revenues at ports while also approving the rates for those services.
In its push for the International Maritime Trade Competitiveness Act, Philexport said enhanced oversight is needed to review local charges imposed by international shipping lines. The proposal was included in HB 4933, also filed in the previous Congress.
Philexport added that the measure would safeguard reasonable, competitive logistics costs and enable businesses and stakeholders to operate on a more level playing field. “We want to ensure these charges are based on international best practices, are reasonable, and are subject to taxes as levied at the local level,” the group said.
Ortiz-Luis also expressed support for the Customs Amnesty Bill, which would grant one-time amnesty for pending account liquidations. He said it would help generate additional government revenues through voluntary disclosure—without imposing new taxes—and clear the Bureau of Customs of these outstanding accounts, preventing harassment of importers over unresolved transactions.
