MANILA, 11 JANUARY 2015—The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) will have an interim General Manager starting today (Thursday), a familiar face, Raul T. Santos.
President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III, signed the appointment papers of Santos Wednesday last week.
Santos will occupy the position for the unexpired term of erstwhile PPA GM Juan C. Sta. Ana who resigned last month due to personal reasons or until the President appoints a permanent GM. Sta. Ana is supposed to step down from office when a new administration takes over in July of this year.
As Officer-in-Charge, Santos will oversee, among others, the ongoing and planned projects including the modernization of the ports of Iloilo, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga as well as the enforcement of the new Terminal Management Policy allowing cargo-handling operators to level up their performance by becoming terminal operators.
Prior to assuming the post of PPA GM, Santos is the Assistant General Manager for Operations (AGMO). He was also the Port District Office (PDO) Manager for Visayas until he was appointed as AGMO in the mid-2000. Santos was also the Assistant to the General Manager for Corporate Affairs and Special Projects during the early years of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration.
He was also the first-ever General Manager when the Cebu Port Authority was created in 1992 through Republic Act 7621.
For the unexpired term, Santos is expected to carry out the remaining projects left by his predecessor, where Santos likewise is one of the protagonists.
Under the watch of Sta. Ana, PPA was able to achieve new heights the latest of which was the action made by the Governance Commission for Government Owned or Controlled Corporation (GCG) that elevated PPA status to First Class government corporation (Classification A) based on COA-Audited Financial Statements for CYs 2012, 2013 and 2014. Based on 2014 Commission on Audit (COA) Report on PPA’s Financial Statements, its assets are valued at Php114.53 Billion and its audited revenues for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 enormously increased to Php10.4B, Php11.7B and Php13.2B, respectively, noting very significant and commendable increases in the last 5 years as well as the simplication of business processess in ports to make it easy for the public to transact business and transparency in corporate governance. PPA also pushed for port modernization in various gateway projects, port efficiency and productivity in the handling of cargoes and connectivity.
Meanwhile, the GCG has asked the PPA to document all of its outstanding development/accomplishments through a Legacy Report for submission to the Governance Commission.