Port Irene is nestled on the sleepy village of San Vicente, Sta. Ana in Cagayan province, over some 600 kilometers north of Manila. It hugs the coast of the northeasternmost tip of Luzon island and very few will imagine that Port Irene and its host, a fifth class municipality in Cagayan, can ever be a bustling trade center.

 

        The grapevine said the port since June 28 has been unloading hundreds of used vehicles from Japan and South Korea, tons of urea and other fertilizer products and thousands of motorbikes on a duty-free basis. Port Irene is indeed alive and it could be the next strategic free port after Subic.

 

        The area is a mere 45-minute flight from Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s largest industrial and shipping center, and much the same distance from Hong Kong.