The Palawan Provincial Government is set to turnover on June 12, the Philippine Independence Day, to the national government the recently constructed port in Pag-asa in the Kalayaan Island Group, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said.

In a televised meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday night, Tugade said his office reported during a recent meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases that construction of 10 ports in the country has been completed and one of them is the port in Pag-asa.

He said there would be no more inauguration ceremonies of those ports amid the coronavirus disease pandemic.

"Included there in the completion is the Pag-asa port. The Provincial Government of Palawan is ready to turn that over to us on June 12," he said.

"I said if I can just accept its (port's) paper. Let us not hold any inauguration," Tugade added.

He said all the newly-constructed ports would be operational soon.

In the 2017 budget, the government had earmarked P450 million in capital outlay to the DOTr for the Barangay Pag-asa Port Project.

China has been claiming almost the entire South China Sea, including KIG. Kalayaan is a municipality of Palawan.

The government has also reinforced its airstrip in Pag-asa. Celerina Monte/DMS