Editor’s Note: This is the last of a 3-part PortCalls series on Manila’s port congestion. Read Part 1 (Seaport Crisis), here, and Part 2 (The Airport Crisis), here.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Two Gateways, One Underlying Problem
The simultaneous congestion at Manila’s seaports and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is not coincidental. Both crises share a common thread: a trade infrastructure struggling to keep pace with the volume demands of a growing economy — compounded by the loss of capacity that was never adequately replaced at NAIA, inadequate off-dock depot capacity at the seaports, and an overarching technological bottleneck in the Bureau of Customs’ electronic-to-mobile (e2M) system slowing every transaction flowing through both gateways.
At the seaports, capacity on paper is not the problem. Manila International Container Terminal’s rated capacity of 3.5 million twenty-equivalent units (TEUs) comfortably exceeds its 2025 actual volume of around 3 million TEUs, while Manila South Harbor’s 2-million-TEU capacity exceeds its 2025 throughput of approximately 1 million TEUs. But raw terminal capacity tells only part of the story. The congestion gripping both ports is driven not by a shortage of berths or cranes, but by the cascading breakdown of the ecosystem surrounding the terminals — slow container withdrawal, full off-dock depots, an overstretched truck fleet, and a customs clearance system struggling to keep pace. Expanding terminals or yards, while useful in the long run, cannot untangle a problem rooted in the behavior and capacity of every link in the supply chain beyond the terminal gate.
At NAIA, the loss of two warehouse facilities has left a single dominant handler (Paircargo) absorbing volumes that a multi-facility system once shared.
In both cases, the congestion has exposed the same fault line: the country’s primary trade infrastructure operates with little margin for error. When one variable shifts — a volume spike, a warehouse closure, a slowdown in container re-exportation, a day of e2M instability — the entire system tips into crisis. The human and economic cost is real and immediate: mounting demurrage and storage fees for importers, component shortages disrupting production, logistics providers stretched thin, and for the semiconductor and electronics sectors — the backbone of Philippine export earnings — lost output that cannot be recovered.
What Needs to Happen
The immediate fixes being implemented — BOC’s three-measure directive at the seaports, the satellite processing facility at NAIA, the sweeper vessel coordination — are necessary and welcome. But they are reactive. Both crises make clear that the Philippines urgently needs a forward-looking, systemic approach to trade infrastructure planning that anticipates capacity requirements rather than scrambling to address them after they breach critical thresholds.
At NAIA, airport operator New NAIA Infra Corp must provide clear, public answers on replacement cargo-handling capacity and the timeline for delivering it. The redevelopment of the airport is a legitimate objective — but not at the cost of the cargo ecosystem that supports the country’s most valuable export sector.
At the seaports, the structural gaps in the container logistics chain must be addressed: more off-dock depot capacity to absorb empties, a larger and more flexible truck fleet, and more effective enforcement to prevent laden containers from languishing inside terminals for weeks or months.
Across both gateways, the full replacement of e2M must finally be committed to. The congestion at Manila’s ports and airport is not purely a physical problem — it is also a digital one. A modern, reliable customs clearance platform is not a luxury; at the current scale of Philippine trade, it is an operational necessity. E2M breakdowns bring clearance delays, system-induced dwell time, and avoidable cargo buildup passed on to importers, logistics providers, and ultimately, the consuming public.
The blame loop — terminals pointing at importers, importers at truckers, truckers at depots, depots at shipping lines, and everyone quietly aware that the government’s own clearance system is not helping — will continue to spin until someone with the authority to break it steps in and holds every link of the chain accountable. That includes the technology that underpins the entire clearance process.
Manila’s role as the country’s primary trade gateway is both its greatest asset and its most critical vulnerability. When it functions well, it is the engine of the Philippine economy. When it does not, the cost is measured not just in pesos, but in production lines shut down, export commitments missed, and investor confidence tested.
The “ber” months are coming. The window to fix this is now. — PortCalls
