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THE
Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) has asked Malacañang to
take over the resolution of the labor dispute at
Dumaguete Port in the central part of the country, after
the situation went from bad to worse, while the state
firm and shipping companies are counting their losses.
PPA
general manager Oscar Sevilla said on Friday they had
already distanced themselves from the labor dispute
issue, which has become “a police matter” and after the
local government unit (LGU) joined the fray and sided
with the workers.
“The
Cabinet superceded PPA [on the Dumaguete labor dispute
issue]; they disapproved of the way we were handling it
because, since we have the law behind us, we want to
disperse the strikers,” Sevilla said. He added the
police authorities are yet to make a move against the
strikers.
He said
the strikers are now in full control of the port and the
Dumaguete port manager has left for safety after he
reportedly started getting death threats.
“It
depends on how the police would settle the issue. What
we want is that the strikers be removed and Prudential
[Customs and Brokerage Services Inc.] be allowed to
render their cargo-handling service since they won the
bidding.”
Sevilla
said the LGU sided with the 151 striking workers for
them to be absorbed by the new cargo handler.
As a
result of the dispute, losses are piling up for both PPA
and the shipping lines, which had to divert their
cargoes to the private ports, such as Dumaguete Coconut
Mill port.
At the
moment, only passengers are allowed to use the port.
Shipping lines have reportedly incurred a loss of about
P6 million a week since the start of the dispute.
According to estimates, Sulpicio Lines is losing some P2
million from payment of cargoes to be shipped out of
Dumaguete while the Aboitiz-owned SuperFerry is losing
some P1.6 million.
Smaller
firms such as George and Peter Lines, Cokaliong and
Alesson Shipping Lines lose anywhere between P300,000
and P800,000 a week.
PPA, on
the other hand, is also losing some P420,000 a week from
port charges like usage and wharfage fees, and its
10-percent share from the proceeds of cargo handling
operations.
The
strike is already affecting the movement of goods along
the Strong Republic Nautical Highway since
Dumaguete
Port
is a major link in the route, one of the flagship
projects of the Arroyo administration.
Since
March 13, Dumaguete port has been closed to cargo.
In
October last year workers affiliated with the Associated
Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the
Philippines
used the on-and-off style of a picket, before eventually
gaining control of the port in March just as the winning
bidder was supposed to take over the operations from the
government.
In
December 2006, Prudential won the cargo-handling
contract for the port after PPA took over the
cargo-handling services in Dumaguete in September 2002.
Prudential has not absorbed hundreds of members of the
union, leading to the mass action. The company has not
acknowledged the collective bargaining agreement between
the workers and the former employer, Cipres Stevedoring
and Arrastre Inc., claiming the employment of porters is
a management prerogative.
PPA has
allocated P395.7 million for the Dumaguete Port
expansion project, one of its biggest budget line items
last year. The project involves privatization of
cargo-handling services for domestic and international
operations once the construction has been completed.
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