AISL told to extend ‘free time’ for cargoes
DOTr acts to help business during pandemic
THE country’s beleaguered business community has welcomed the assistance extended to them by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) in easing the hardship they had been long suffering in the hands of the international shipping companies.
In a department order dated June 24, 2020, DOTr secretary, Arthur Tugade, directed the shipping lines to immediately implement an 8-day “free time” period for all international cargoes unloaded in any port in the Philippines.
Previously and despite the pandemic and the economic and business dislocation it had caused, members of the Association of International Shipping Lines (AISL) refused to do their share of burden by maintaining its 5-day free time period.
The ‘free time period’ is the number of days that a shipping line grants to its customers (shippers) before it started slapping penalty and demurrage charges.
One of those who welcomed the released of Department Order (DO) 2020-009 is businessman David Ong, who is engaged in the import business.
He said the three days extension insisted on by Tugade’s office is already a “big help” to the business sector.
To enforce compliance by AISL members who have creatively come up with various collection schemes on businessmen for several decades now, Tugade also signed DO 2020-008 on the same date.
The order mandated for the creation of a ‘Shippers Protection Office’ (SPO) with the task of rendering protection and assistance to shippers, both international and domestic, “against unreasonable fees and charges imposed by international and domestic shipping lines.”
The new regulatory office shall be chaired by the general manager of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and co-chaired by the administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina). It shall be headquartered at the PPA main office at the Port of Manila.
Aside from assisting waterfront stakeholders in their complaints against excessive and unreasonable charges being imposed by shipping lines, Tugade said the SPO is also expected to render its report to him on a monthly basis.
To ensure food supply stability and stable prices of agricultural products, Tugade, under DO 2020-007, also directed all domestic shipping lines to allocate, exclusively, cargo space in all their vessels every voyage for agricultural and food products.
The order also mandated domestic shipping lines to give “preferential cargo rate” for these types of products.
