The City of Dipolog is the capital of Zamboanga del Norte, which is the largest province of the Zamboanga Peninsula region by land area, covering 7,301 sq. km. located in northwestern Mindanao. The City of Dapitan is the place where the Spaniards exiled Jose Rizal, our national hero, for his revolutionary ways, making Dapitan a shrine-city.

Since 1993, the Port of Dapitan has been in the limelight as it continues to play an important role in connecting the network of roads and RORO ports to form a highway known as the Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH) along the Western Seaboard. The port is the jump off point to/from Luzon and Visayas. Since the initial launching of the SRNH in 2003, a significant increase in RORO traffic in both cargo and passengers has taken place in the Port of Dapitan.

PMO-Zamboanga del Norte (PMO-ZDN) is now the official name as a result of the approval of Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) Rationalization Plan by virtue of Governance Commission for government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) Memorandum Circular No. 10-2014 dated 25-March-2015. PMO-ZDN used to be called TMO-Dapitan.

PMO-ZDN is located in Barangay San Vicente, Dapitan City. It is 14 kms away from Dipolog City, and 7 kms away from the Dapitan City proper in Zamboanga del Norte, which is to the north of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, and Zamboanga City, and flanked to the north by the Sulu Sea.

PMO-ZDN has a total port area of 22,614 sqm, of which 14,078 sqm is operational area, and 186 sqm is commercial area. It has 3 RORO ramps, 2 R.C. piers, and 2 wharves. There are at least 9 domestic shipping lines that make shipcalls to PMO-ZDN. There are 2 lighthouses, in Tag-ulo Point and Barangay San Vicente. As part of its cargo stacking area and container yard, the port has a total reclaimed area of 10,402 sqm, operational area of 7,667 sqm, and back-up area of 5,000 sqm.

PMO-ZDN has 2 Terminal Management Offices (TMO): TMO Sindangan and TMO Liloy. (1) TMO SINDANGAN is located in Calatunan, Sindangan. It has 1 RORO ramp and 2 R.C. piers with a draft of up to 6 meters, and a paved reclaimed area for open storage of 5,250 sqm. (2) TMO LILOY is located in Lamao, Liloy. It has 1 RORO ramp with a draft of 10 meters; 2 R.C. piers, one with a draft of 6 meters and the other between 6 to 15 meters; and a back-up area yard of 3,550 sqm. There are 2 public ports: Galas and Nabilid; and 3 private ports: Southern Island Oil Mills; Mindanao Estates Timber; and Dipolog Coconut Oil Mill.

Engr. Arcidi S. Jumaani is the Port Manager of PMO-ZDN. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Civil engineering at the Western Mindanao State University, Zamboanga City in 1988. He passed the Junior Geodetic Engineers Board Exam and the Civil Engineering Licensure Examination in April and November 1988, respectively. He completed his Masteral Degree in 1999 at Medina College, and completed all the academic subjects for a Doctor in Sustainable Development Studies, except Dissertation, at Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). He joined the PPA in 1992 as Field Engineer assigned at Facilities, Construction and Maintenance Department, PPA Head Office. He was later appointed Supervising Engineer of PPA, at PMO-Ozamiz in 1995, and promoted to Principal Engineer in 2002. He was then assigned to PMP-Iligan in 2012 as Acting Division Manager, Engineering Services Division, and promoted to Division Manager in 2015. He was designated Officer-in-Charge of PMO-Iligan in 2016, Acting Port Manager shortly thereafter, and was assigned to PMO-Mindoro where he became a full-pledged Port Manager in June 2018. He was later assigned to PMO Zamboanga del Norte in January 2019, and currently serves as Port Manager of PMO-ZDN.

Growth in Operations. Based on main operational data sourced from PPA covering 2016 to 2018, statistics show that PMO-ZDN has achieved the following compound average growth rates: (a) Shipcalls, 9.8%; (b) Passenger Traffic, 10.2%; (c) Container Traffic in TEU, 4.7%; (d) RORO Traffic, 17.4%; and Cargo Throughput in MT, 7.4%. RORO Traffic showed the highest compound average growth rate (CAGR).

Shipcalls were predominantly domestic, as with Container Traffic. But there was much higher growth in Foreign Cargo Throughput (14.7%) than Domestic Cargo Throughput (5.5%).

Imports comprised 10.7% of total Foreign Cargo Throughput (MT), while Exports comprised 89.3% on average during the period 2016-2018. However, the main driver of growth in Foreign Cargo was from Imports cargo that grew 132%, compared with Exports cargo that grew 6.9%. 