The development of the country’s Blue Economy has become more exciting with the timely and badly needed boost following the announcement last month of President Bongbong Marcos of the allocation of P11.2 billion for the Philippines’ Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency or FishCoRe project to be funded with $200 million loan from World Bank.

This prompted the Coalition for Agricultural Modernization in the Philippines chaired by former UP president, Dr. Emil Javier and CAMP president, Dr. Eufemio Rasco Jr., to hold a small meeting to generate ideas and explore possible proposals for submission to President Marcos Jr.

During that meeting held early this month, CAMP invited Ms. Merle San Pedro, president of the Mariners Polytechnic Colleges Foundation — Legaspi, to provide CAMP with a regional perspective of the Blue Economy in Bicol. We shared her presentation here in our last issue.

We were also invited to that meeting to present the perspective of the Blue Economy on a micro level. As we have informed through this column, we have been privileged to be invited to join CAMP after we presented in its meeting last July our vision and projects through the Philippine Association of Coastal and Inland Water Ferries Inc. in collaboration with the IMP Shipyard and Port Services.

We gladly shared an update on our modest accomplishments. So far, we are on track in the development of the shipbuilding and ship repair facilities in Albuera, Leyte in support of the 10-Year Maritime Industry Development Plan and the empowerment of fisher folks and coastal residents of Albuera.

This is a private sector initiative to increase fish production and sustain the fish value chain, conduct ship repair and drydocking, design and construct ferry and commercial fishing vessels and establish a fish market cooperative that will manage the fish catch through a social enterprise concept.

We aim to improve the livelihood of the fisher folks and coastal community of Albuera as well as the socio-economic situation of the municipality. Hence, the success of the operation of the IMP shipyard and its shipbuilding program in cooperation with PACIWFI is vital to the success of this initiative.

Site development on IMP Shipyard’s four-hectare land has gone full swing in the last six months. The fabrication building and warehouse are now under construction as well as the concreting of the first three launch way of the planned 10 launch way pavement that can accommodate 10 ships below 80 meters long.

We have ordered the necessary major shipyard equipment like the airbags, hydraulic winch, and accessories, crane and lathe machine, and other equipment. All these pieces of equipment, which are compliant with Marina and DENR requirements, are already delivered to the site.

Barring any unforeseeable events, we are confident to complete the first three launch way by March 2023; thus, by then we can be partially operational.

Hopefully, we can finish the first five launch way by June 2023. Once fully operational, IMP Shipyard can provide jobs to around 200 workers in the area.

On the fish port development, it would start by 2024 while, at the same time, continuing to complete the remaining five smaller launch ways. We are looking at building our first fishing vessel by 2024.

On the design and construction of ferry and fishing vessels, we have an ongoing discussion with international classification society and maritime consultants for the detailed design of an environment-friendly ferry and fishing vessels.

Fortunately, PACIWFI has become a member of the Phil Energy Efficiency Alliance or PE2; we now have an opportunity to collaborate with providers of various renewable energy technology that we can apply to our ferry and fishing vessels.

In our next issue, we will share more on the opportunities to use environmental energy technology in our vessels as well as some challenges we are encountering in carrying our vision and plans for a Blue Economy at the micro level.