Philippine Ports Authority
Encyclopedia
The Philippine Ports Authority is a government-owned corporation
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...

 under the Department of Transportation and Communications
Department of Transportation and Communications (Philippines)
The Department of Transportation and Communications is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the maintenance and expansion of viable, efficient, and dependable transportation and communications systems as effective instruments for national recovery and economic...

 as an attached agency. It is responsible for financing, management and operations of public ports throughout the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

.

History

Prior to the creation of PPA, port administration in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 was merged with the traditional function of revenue collection of the Bureau of Customs (BOC). Port and harbor maintenance was the responsibility of the Bureau of Public Works (BPW). In the early 1970s, there were already 591 national and municipal ports plus 200 private ports scattered all over the country necessitating the need for long-range planning and rationalization of port development.

There was an identified need to integrate and coordinate port planning, development, operations and regulation at the national level. Around this time, the Bureau of Customs had proposed to the Reorganization Committee and to Congress
Congress of the Philippines
The Congress of the Philippines is the national legislature of the Republic of the Philippines. It is a bicameral body consisting of the Senate , and the House of Representatives although commonly in the Philippines the term congress refers to the latter.The Senate is composed of 24 senators half...

 the creation of a separate government agency to integrate the functions of port operations, cargo handling and port development and maintenance to enable the Bureau to concentrate on tax and customs duties collection. Moreover, the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

, as a condition for the grant of a port development loan in 1973, stipulated the creation of a port authority to oversee the implementation of projects under that loan.

Realizing that the establishment and operation of port authorities in other countries led to improved port operations, it was felt that the same benefits could be derived with a national port authority to administer and manage the country's ports. Hence, the Philippine Ports Authority was created under Presidential Decree No. 505 which was subsequently amended by P.D. No. 857 in December 1975. The latter decree broadened the scope and functions of the PPA to facilitate the implementation of an integrated program for the planning, development, financing, operation and maintenance of ports or port districts for the entire country. In 1978, the charter was further amended by Executive Order No. 513 the salient features of which were the granting of police authority to the PPA, the creation of a National Ports Advisory Council (NPAC) to strengthen cooperation between the government and the private sector, and the empowering of the Authority to exact reasonable administrative fines for specific violations of its rules and regulations. By virtue of its charter, the PPA was attached to what was then the Ministry of Public Works and Highways
Department of Public Works and Highways (Philippines)
The Philippines’ Department of Public Works and Highways , abbreviated as DPWH, is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for all safety of projects in the field of public works...

 (MPWH) which also served as the executing agency for all port construction projects. Under this set-up, PPA prepared the general plans, programs and project priorities while the MPWH was responsible for detailed engineering, actual construction and/or supervision of port construction projects.

The PPA was subsequently removed from under the jurisdiction of the MPWH and attached to what is now the Department of Transportation and Communications
Department of Transportation and Communications (Philippines)
The Department of Transportation and Communications is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the maintenance and expansion of viable, efficient, and dependable transportation and communications systems as effective instruments for national recovery and economic...

 (DOTC) for policy and program coordination. Subsequently, by virtue of Executive Order No. 159, which was issued in 1987, the PPA is now vested with the function of undertaking all port construction projects under its port system, relieving DPWH of this responsibility. The executive order also granted PPA financial autonomy.

P 6 Billion Just Compensation Award

On August 24, 2007, the Philippine Supreme Court (per 24-page decision by Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez
Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez
Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez is a Filipino jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 2000 to 2008. She was the last appointment to the Court made by President Joseph Estrada.-Profile:...

), ordered PPA to pay 231 residents of Batangas City
Batangas City
- Foreign Rule :The first Spanish missionaries arrived in Batangas City since 1572. Finally on 1581 Spanish authorities governing the Philippines created a pueblo in the area which included the hill where the present Provincial Capitol of Batangas stands after the formal end of the Coumintang...

 the just compensation sum of P6 billion as payment of 185 lots it bought in 2001 for the construction of Phase 2 of the Batangas Port Zone. On September 6, 2007, the Supreme Court of the Philippines
Supreme Court of the Philippines
The Supreme Court of the Philippines is the Philippines' highest judicial court, as well as the court of last resort. The court consists of 14 Associate Justices and 1 Chief Justice...

 orders status quo
Status quo
Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...

 on PPA expropriation
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

 in Batangas
Batangas
Batangas is a first class province of the Philippines located on the southwestern part of Luzon in the CALABARZON region. Its capital is Batangas City and it is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and Laguna to the north and Quezon to the east. Across the Verde Island Passages to the south is the...

(of 1,298,340 square meters of land to be used for the development of Phase II of the Batangas City port).

External links

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