(Eagle News)–The Philippine Ports Authority has reported over P7.2 billion in net income in 2019, reportedly its highest so far.
According to the PPA, its data showed that the P7.280 billion was 31% higher than the 2018 figure of P5.553 billion.
Compared to its 2017 net income of P4.473 billion, the current net income is better by 54%.
It is also 47% higher than the target P4.941 billion, the PPA said.
Combining all the growth percentages in the first 3 years of the current administration, the PPA said its net income is growing at an annual rate of 17%, also the highest revenue growth percentage in any of the last 15 years.
PPA General Manager Jay Daniel R. Santiago said that the strong financial performance of the PPA is due to the changes being implemented by the current administration.
“The changes range from manual to automated processes, installation of sophisticated, effective, and higher productivity port equipment, compliance with the world’s best port management practices, and most especially, the shift in the outlook of employees to public service with reliability, integrity, and accountability,” Santiago said.
According to Santiago, among the Port Management Offices that posted significant positive performance were South Harbor, Batangas, Davao, Surigao, and Bataan/Aurora.
“The positive deviation comes mainly from Lay-up fees, Ro-Ro fees, Domestic Dockage fee, Pilotage, the utilization of the Vessel Traffic Monitoring System, and other income,” the PPA said.
The agency’s total expenses decreased by at least 15.5% to P8.008 billion as against the 2018 figure of P9.476 billion due to “the significant decreases in the repair and maintenance aspect related to land improvement and other financial expenses,” the PPA said,adding that non-cash expenses declined by 15% to P2.727 billion due to the “decreases in the amortization of the agency’s intangible assets and other losses.”
In the next couple of days, the PPA said it would revisit its first-quarter performance targets “in consideration of the current global concerns like the continuing threat of the COVID-19, the exit of Great Britain from the European Union, the West Philippine Sea, safety and environmental concerns, among others.”
“Even with the continuing threat of global concerns, ‘business as usual’ is not an option but reducing the risk of these threats coupled with management anchored on best practices and public-service committed government personnel, our gateways connecting to the tourism and trade centers of the world, will remain competitive and responsive to any current global demands,” Santiago said.
