By MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City — The Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. (Bredco) is appealing to the Sangguniang Panlungsod not to approve the Banago port zone delineation plan of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA).
Once approved by the City Council, the zone delineation plan will give PPA the leeway to carry out development initiatives at the Banago port.
The City Development Council earlier passed a resolution approving of the zone delineation.
Bredco, which operates the city port, sees the Banago port as a tough competitor.
It believes that “competing with the government” would put it at a disadvantage.
“It is unfair,” stressed its counsel, Roseller Maalat.
Worse, Maalat said, the money that PPA will use to develop the port “will come from the taxes we are paying.”
“Bredco is a taxpayer. So we are also one of the contributors to the development of the port [that will] compete with our business,” he said.
Bredco had been operating the city seaport for a long time now, paying PPA about P17 million annually for wharfage and other fees.
Maalat called on the city councilors and Mayor Monico Puentevella not to approve the PPA plan.
“We really cannot compete with the government (PPA) because they are using people’s money. They don’t care whether they can make money or not. Their main purpose is public service,” he said./PN
