ABOITIZ Transport System (ATS) wants the new administration to enhance existing shipping policies instead of introducing new ones.
“We are not going to ask for certain policies from the incoming administration as the existing rules are enough,” ATS chairman Jon Ramon Aboitiz said in a recent interview.
“Incentives and other programs are enough but we would like them to keep the cabotage law as the country cannot afford to lift or even relax it as it will kill the local shipping industry. The new administration should not entertain any idea of trying to alter the cabotage law. The United States has it so we should also keep it.”
Aboitiz noted the country should learn from Indonesia which, when it tried to lift cabotage, almost killed the local shipping industry.
The outgoing administration had tried to relax implementation of the cabotage law by proposing to allow some foreign-flag vessels to operate in the local trade.
Government said the move would address the lack of bottoms due to increasing trade and attract more foreign shipping operators to register their vessels in the country.
ATS itself, through MCC Transport Philippines — a joint venture between ATS and Maersk Line – had earlier been accused of circumventing the cabotage law by operating two foreign-flag vessels for several months in the local trade before finally registering them locally.
