President Benigno S. Aquino III is scheduled to visit this city today to inaugurate the picturesque Maguino-o Port.
Manager Dominador Licayan of the Philippine Ports Authority in Eastern Visayas said that the PPA General Manager Atty. Juan Santa Ana will be at the Maguinoo Port to welcome President Aquino.
The President is expected to arrive at the Calbayog Airport in the morning where he will be met by Brig. General Romeo Labador of the 801st Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army and PNP Samar Provincial Director Eusebio Mejos.
As soon as the President together with his party composed of DOTC Secretary Abaya, DILG Secretary Mar Roxas, DOE Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, arrives at the Port, he will unveil the marker infront of the Passenger Terminal Building.
Manager Licayan will give the project briefing.
The PPA Tacloban Manager said the Maguino-o Port is a very appropriate alternate port of Calbayog City due to its controlling depth of 6.0 meters which does not need maintenance dredging.
It is also strategically situated being only 22 kilometers from the City Port of Calbayog and 179 kilometers away from Tacloban Port.
Maguino-o Port caters to vessels plying the Cebu – Maguinoo route regularly and tramping vessels from Iligan to Calbayog carrying flour and feeds and from Calbayog to Misamis Oriental carrying copra. It also serves the neighboring municipalities of Samar and Northern Samar.
Licayan said that the Port of Calbayog has been perennially dredged due to siltation problem.
In the late 2000 Maguino-o Port was identified as an alternate port by the Department of Transportation and Communication due to its deep water port which is approximately 6.0 meters which requires no dredging programs or maintenance. The initial project cost amounted to P20.0 million.
In 2011, under the administration of President Aquino, PPA implemented the pier extension and provision of Passenger Terminal Building and Pier Extension at the cost of P38.5M and was completed February 14, 2013.
Maguino-o Port, once fully operational, will have great impact in the economy of Calbayog City, the province of Samar and Eastern Visayas as a whole, Licayan said.
Aside from providing easy access in transporting goods to and from Calbayog which will redound to more brisk trading, the port also provides more jobs to approximately 150 warm bodies such as dockworkers, delivery groups, vendors of food and snacks, porterage workers, local transport operators from the lowly pedicab to vehicles for hire, Licayan added.
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Press Release, April 26, 2013