17 passenger RoRo ferries, 5 fast craft, 2 cargo RoRo
Routes operated
27
After two overnight exits in 2023
At the board table
Sanvoro Port Terminal Corporation
Non-independent director nominated by Banagra Sealink
Operations and safety committee
A ferry route is a promise to an island, and it is also a ship, a crew and a berth that could be serving another crossing. I try to keep both facts in the same paper. A strategy that cannot name the routes it will leave has not yet made its choices.
An island ferry network keeps its future by renewing berth, vessel and timetable together on the crossings that matter, and by leaving the others openly.
I am chief strategy officer of Banagra Sealink Corporation, a family-controlled ferry and port-terminal group based in Cebu City. We run 24 vessels on 27 routes across Central and Eastern Visayas, with short crossings to north-eastern Mindanao, and we operate three terminals, one of them jointly with a provincial government. Revenue in 2025 was ₱6.4 billion and about 2,850 people work for us, roughly two-thirds of them at sea. An infrastructure fund has held 30% of the company since 2019. I lead fourteen people in network planning, corporate development and fleet-investment analysis, and I report to our president.
My first job, in 1996, was planning container stacks on a Cebu wharf for a stevedoring contractor. I then spent six years on route economics for a Manila domestic container line and nine years in Singapore, first planning feeder rotations between the hub and island ports, then advising port owners, lenders and operators on concessions and route studies. I came home to Banagra in 2016 because I wanted to own the consequences of recommendations I had been writing for other people.
Most of my work answers three questions that compete for the same capital: which crossings to grow, which berths are worth funding, and which ships to replace or retire. The answers are rarely separate. A new ferry on a crossing with a congested ramp buys little, and a better terminal on a route that is losing its traffic buys less. I try to put the vessel, the port and the timetable in one paper, with the colleagues who disagree named in it, before our board is asked to choose.
Two overnight routes closed in 2023
The founder's first route and its sister service lost ₱128 million at operating level in 2022. We closed both in stages, sold one ship for ₱88 million, moved 126 of 171 seafarers to other vessels and gave up about a tenth of revenue.
A shared berth instead of an exclusive one
Our ₱1.15 billion terminal joint venture with a provincial government opened in 2024 as a common-user facility. We accepted a modelled return of 11.9% rather than 14.6%, and other operators now carry 37% of its passengers.
Three new ferries rather than four used ones
We ordered three efficient day ferries for ₱3.4 billion instead of four 20-year-old ships for ₱2.0 billion. The first burns 24% less fuel per crossing; the price was about 3,800 vehicle bookings refused in Holy Week 2026.
Current focus
I am preparing the 2027–2029 capital plan: whether the third new ferry's corridor can support a fourth, whether a battery-hybrid vessel becomes practical once a shore connection exists at the far-side port, and which two of our thinner fast-craft routes should be merged.
Conversations I welcome
I would welcome a first independent board seat in transport, ports, tourism or infrastructure in the Philippines or Singapore, with about twenty-two days a year, subject to my own board's consent and a review of competitor, port and shipyard relationships.
The leadership record
Trusted with consequential decisions.
Formation
Bachelor of science in industrial engineeringPandelaro Institute of Technology · 1996
Master of science in maritime economics (part-time)Marlindon Institute of Maritime Studies · 2010
Rizal and I disagreed about exclusivity at the new terminal, and he put my argument in the board paper more fairly than I had made it. The board chose his option. Two years and one election later, I am glad it did.
Ernesto ValcorzaPresident and chief executive, Banagra Sealink CorporationThe full record ↗
Contact
I would welcome a first independent board seat in transport, ports, tourism or infrastructure in the Philippines or Singapore, with about twenty-two days a year, subject to my own board's consent and a review of competitor, port and shipyard relationships.