Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Monday that a number of shipbuilders from the United States, Australia, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia are interested in taking over the daily operations of the troubled Hanjin shipyard at the Subic Bay Freeport.
Lorenzana, in a press briefing shortly after a speech he delivered during the National Defense College of the Philippines Alumni Forum “The National Security Outlook for the Philippines in 2019” at the NDCP building in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, said the countries expressed interest in investing in cash-strapped Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines after the South Korean shipbuilder recently filed for rehabilitation amid ballooning debts to Philippine and Korean lenders.
Thousands of Filipino workers reportedly lost their jobs due to the company’s bankruptcy.
“There are several shipyards, ship companies around the world they are also interested,” Lorenzana said. “Some are the US, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, and also Australian. I think lately I also heard some Turkish or some European shipyards are already interested,” he added.
Lorenzana again did not discount the possibility of the government taking over the shipyard as funds have been set aside by the Senate to help revive the facility.
“But if you look at the newspaper, the Hanjin shipyard is not actually, has not filed for bankruptcy. It is just asking for rehabilitation because the problem is cash flow. It is still building some ships here in the Philippines but it needs money to keep operating day-to-day basis so it is still in the works,” Lorenzana said.
“However, the Senate has already set aside some money for the eventual, kung sakali man if worse comes to worst that we have to take over then the Senate has already allocated money to take over the facility. And then the navy plus some local shipbuilders also can come in and run the facility. That’s the plan,” he added. (Francis Wakefield)
