President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made Subic her last stop for her Luzon Urban Beltway tour that started last week.
The president made a visit in Subic Bay Freeport late in the afternoon to check on the Subic Port Development Project and Korean ship builder Hanjin.
Upon docking at the Hanjin pier the convoy of the president was supposed to be briefed by Hanjin officials along the Hanjin-Cawag road but a few meters into the run the convoy went back inside Hanjin shipyard.
The president upon arriving inside Hanjin was visibly irked by the lack of preparation of Hanjin officials to conduct a briefing inside the Korean shipbuilding company.
Her bus stopped at one of the main building dock of Hanjin and the president asked officials of Hanjin to do the briefing there.
With only a megaphone in hand JS Shim former president of Hanjin Philippines conducted the on the spot briefing in front of reporters and the president.
Hanjin’s Subic shipyard, has already produced eight container and bulk vessels, the latest being 114,000-deadweight ton tanker MT Leyla K, the first and biggest oil crude tanker ever built in the Philippines.
By 2012, Hanjin is due to deliver 36 more vessels to customers from all over the world, the company announced earlier.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) administrator Armand Arreza said the HHIC-Phil., which is now the largest shipbuilder in the Philippines and the fourth biggest in the world, won the new contract because of the well-trained workforce, state-of-the-art technology, highly efficient shipbuilding processes, and high quality of workmanship, which made possible the establishment of a cost-efficient shipbuilding industry here.
“What many foreign investors like about Subic is the competitive workforce,” Arreza explained.
“The Philippine labor force is more competitive than those in other Asian countries. And here in Subic Bay, we take pride in our talented and high-quality workers.” He added.
Arreza further explained that local workers have “high-quality motor and technical skills, are quick learners and hardworking, and they put into practice whatever they learm in trainings.”
The Subic Port Development Project meanwhile is a major component of the Arroyo administration’s program to develop an international logistics service hub in the Subic-Clark area. The other components are the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in another former US military base, the Clark Freeport in Pampanga.
The $215-million Subic Port Development Project was designed to develop the full range of cargo-handling capabilities in Subic Bay, particularly for containerized cargo, in a bid to gain a slice of the growing container trade in the Asia-Pacific.
Subic’s New Container Terminals 1 and 2, completed in 2006 and 2008 respectively, have increased Subic’s cargo-handling capacity to a total of 600,000 TEUs.
Along the Hanjin tour was 1st district congresswoman Mitos Magsaysay, former Zambales Governor Vicente Magsaysay, SBMA board of Director Jobo Magsaysay, SBMA Administrator Armand Arreza and Chairman Feliciano Salonga, SCAD Chairman Ed Pamintuan.
