Press Release
August 20, 2014

Excerpts from Senator Bam Aquino's Interview with Headstart

On the Manila Port Congestion

Dito sa port congestion, it's a physical problem. There's just too many containers. It's filled up already to about 90 to 100 percent. But I'm hoping it will be already less than 100 percent soon.

Right now, the port is so filled up that trucks can't get in, and the ships that are trying to unload can't go in either.

Then, what happened was, nagkaroon ng truck ban ang Maynila. They did not intend this (congestion), they wanted to ease the traffic in Manila but that started it. Sabi nga ni Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, sila ang nagsindi.

But after a few weeks and noticed that there was a problem, they quickly changed their policies but at that time, the ports are already filled up and suddenly we have a congestion issue.

We wouldn't get to this issue if, from the beginning, we weren't at a critical state. I guess that's something we have to understand. Hindi ito mangyayari nang bigla-biglaan kung from the start, hindi tayo nasa delikadong sitwasyon.

Our ports need to be upgraded, and they need to be expanded. We need Batangas and Subic actually to be supported. Ships need to berth there as well.

Currently, punung-puno ang Port of Manila. And we're trying to bring out containers as fast as we can.

That has led to the congestion, which has led to longer times for trucks to get products; it's yielded higher truck rates also and because of that, nagtaasan ang presyo ng bilihin.

Right now, the issue is they're trying to move out these empty containers. One, Lilia de Lima opened up the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) zone (in Cavite) to be able to accept these containers.

Today, I read in the papers that Clark is also opening up some land to be able to get these containers.

We were also talking about opening up ports on the weekends and Monday mornings.

During the Hearing

In the hearing, Secretary Domingo said we're at that point, were taking out these containers as fast as we can, but anytime that there's any distraction, it will get back to a bad place again. For example, for the past couple of months, the ports have been closed during the weekends and Monday mornings. That's 2 ½ days out of seven days that you could have been working to decongest the Port.

Tapos nagturuan na. Somebody said, "Eh kasi ang Customs wala roon."

Then Sonny Sevilla said, "We're there, kayo naman ang wala."

Then they said, "We want to be there, hindi naman namin ma-release (ang containers) dahil wala ang Department of Agriculture."

Secretary Domingo said, "No, we'll be getting all the agencies there."

There's a lot of this miscommunication that was happening.

I'm happy to say that after that hearing, everyone committed that for the next couple of weekends, people will be working to decongest the ports and that's exactly something that we need to do, currently and fast as we can.

Context of Growing Economy

You look at this issue in the context of our growing economy.

The good news amongst all of these is that we wouldn't be having this problem if our economy is tanking. Our economy is growing.

Every year, six, seven percent increase (ang growth rate ng ekonomiya). Gumaganda ekonomiya natin. You have more trade going in, hopefully going out as well.

We have this growing economy, more people have money, they're buying more stuff, more things are coming in. If we're looking at going from a developing country to a developed country, that's about seven to 10 years of six to seven percent growth that we need to have. If that's the forecast, our infrastructure needs to be ready for that.

Next Steps

The week of September 20, we will have our next hearing at the port itself. Mas maganda talaga na naroroon tayo. Tingnan natin kung anong nangyayari.

We're about 80,000 containers daw and we need to bring it down to about 60,000. We're looking at 20,000 less containers there to have a functional port.

Bring some to Clark; bring some to Cavite, and work on the weekends, maybe in five weeks, maybe we can see 5,000 to 10,000 containers less.

On the Issue of the Overpriced Makati Building. Why would the Senate Investigate a Local Issue?

The Blue Ribbon Committee's power is quite far reaching. Anyway, nasabi na ng Binay camp na they'll be happy to go to the hearing to show the specifics, to show all of these things.

So palagay ko iyong gustong mag-imbestiga at iyong iniimbestigahan, puwede silang magharap and they can have a discussion later at the Senate.

Why Not Investigate the Iloilo Convention Center?

Why not! During the Monday organizational meeting ng Blue Ribbon, which was closed doors, the minority raised that anyone can ask for a sub-committee and investigate anything.

And Senator Guingona said yes. If you want to investigate anything, much like the request of Senator Trillanes, make the request verbally or on paper, and then, we will give you that opportunity.

On the Senate's Lowest Rating? A lot of students asked me when I speak sa mga schools, nagtatanong sila, how can you get back the trust of the people sa Senado.

I always say, we just have to work hard. We will work hard for the people, the policies that we will push will be for the benefit of the people and hopefully through that track record, we can regain back their trust.

Are You Open to Charter Change?

The Senate is not, to be very frank. We haven't discussed it. No meeting regarding it. No one's pushing it in the Senate.

Senator Drilon already said, wala pa namang anything in the Senate regarding the Charter change.

Of course, we have to wait and see what Congress will do but even Speaker Belmonte said he wouldn't allow any other changes in the Charter except for economic provisions.

In that case, if Congress is only talking about economic provisions, even that is not even being talked about in the Senate right now.

If it's Economic Provisions, are you to Open to that?

I think we need to pass the competition law first.

If we open up the economic provisions, we're basically saying, kahit mga dayuhan puwedeng mag-ari ng kompanya at ari-arian.

That (1987 Constitution) was created to protect Filipinos back in the 80s. And again that was the context of the 80s.

If you want these foreign direct investments, if we want to really push our country to the next level of development, we need to change this (Constitution).

But one of the bills that we're pushing, and thankfully it's in the priority list of Malacanang and Congress, is the competition bill.

Kailangan natin ito because if you're opening this up at wala kang competition policy, then we're opening up a lot of uncertainty. You're opening up the gate pero hindi mo alam na ang papasok diyan will act fairly with the rest of the people in the house.

I think even before we even talk about these economic provision, we need to pass the competition law first.

On the very Controversial President Aquino interview?

Is that a controversy or non-traversy?

First of all, I haven't spoken to him since the SONA so medyo matagal-tagal na rin iyon. I looked at the transcript of the interview, nagtataka ako right after the line pakikinggan ko ang aking mga boss, I'm open to cha-cha, but that doesn't mean he's running for a second term.

Later on in the interview, he talks about who will succeed him. And yet, the next day hindi pa nga lumalabas ang interview, nasa headlines na natin na he's looking for a second term.

All of these things, it's very hard to speak hypothetically kasi when you're speaking hypothetically you're just all speculating.

First of all, there are no moves for Charter change in the Senate. I haven't attended any meeting that talked about Charter change. At most, Congress is talking about is economic provisions and Speaker has said, it's the only thing he will allow.

Again, let me say this. I really doubt it. I doubt that the President is looking for a second term. He's counting down the days of his presidency and in the SONA, he said itong natitirang panahon, let us work together and after this, kayo na ang magpapatuloy nito.

I think, at least in the Senate, if Congress does push for this and we are put in a situation where nandito na ito, you can rest assure that we will tackle these issues seriously and we will tackle these issues with the public interest in mind.

(For example,) the Bangsamoro Basic Law might require a Charter change. The timing for the BBL, which is already tight as it is, points to 2016 plebiscite.

You still have to pass the law, you still have to campaign for a plebiscite and people have to vote for it kaya 2016 pa iyon.

Any Charter change will require a plebiscite kung gusto nila, kahit economic. Lahat ng Charter change, kailangang dumaan sa plebisito. We're not actually talking about laws that define the Constitution, we're talking about the Constitution itself.

If you look at the timing, the calendar, it seems that the next time you can have a plebiscite will be at 2016.

At most, the President being open to amending the Charter, that's serious. We'll have to go to a process for that. To be frank, I really doubt if he intends to say his second term.

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