THE planned ferry service for the Pacific Coast provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Aurora, and Quezon conceptualized in 2004 is no more.
Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) administrator and chief executive officer Katrina Ponce Enrile, in a conference with government auditors on September 25, 2023, informed the audit team that the management of the Northeastern Luzon Pacific Coastal Service Inc. (NLPCSI) has decided to dissolve the agency with the concurrence of the Board of Directors.
CEZA is the substitute stockholder of NLPCSI, having taken the place of Quezon Province in 2006 after the latter backed out of the commitment to put up P10 million for a 25-percent stake of 100,000 shares in the ferry service firm.
This means that the CEZA administrator has a seat on the NLPCSI Board of Directors.
The audit team noted that despite having P40 million in start-up capital, the planned venture did not materialize as the NLPCSI never became operational over its 20-year existence.
Had the ferry service become a reality, it would have transported people, raw materials, finished products, commodities and goods up and down the Pacific Coast provinces while providing warehousing and storage facilities for cargoes.
“As of December 31, 2023 or almost 20 years after its creation, the NLPCSI has yet to operationalize its principal business of providing and rendering general services to or necessarily connected operation and management of a coastal service facility in the Pacific,” the COA noted.
Based on the agency’s 2023 financial statement, the NLPCSI had P41.24 million in cash assets representing the contributions of the provincial governments of Cagayan, Isabela, and Aurora and the CEZA.
The COA stressed that as LGU stockholders, the three provinces deserve to be included in the process of dissolution and that their respective Sangguniang Panlalawigan be asked to concur in the exercise of corporate powers.
