SBG steps in to end truckers strike in Manila ports
SENATOR Christopher ‘Bong’ Go proved decisive in ending the ‘indefinite rest day’ (strike) declared by the country’s biggest truckers’ organization last week that started last November 22, 2021 but was called off by the organizers on Thursday afternoon, November 25, 2021.
Abraham Rebao, director of the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines (CTAP) and Mary Zapata, CTAP chair, confirmed to Pinoy Exposé they called off the strike after the senator managed to convince concerned government agencies to meet with them and address their complaints.
“Nagkaroon ng meeting noong Huwebes (November 25), dahil na rin sa tulong ni Sen. Go,” the officials said.
The agencies present at the meeting were the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), Philippine Export Processing Zone Authority (PEZA), Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and representatives from the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), the private arrastre operator at the Manila International Container Port (MICP), the country’s busiest port in terms of volume of arriving containerized shipments.
Rebao said that a representative from the office of Go also attended the meeting.
The intervention of Go came as a surprise as days before the start of the strike, CTAP and the Aduana Business Club, Inc. (ABCI) also chaired by Zapata, called a press conference with representatives from the office of Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Sen. Grace Poe as observers.
But three days into the strike, the concerned government agencies remain “deaf” to the call of CTAP for a dialogue to address their concerns—until Go stepped in.
On the first day of the strike, CTAP announced that “90 percent” of their members participated that resulted to over 80 percent “yard utilization” at the MCIP, according to the monitoring of the Bureau of Customs, upped by more than 6 percent utilization before the strike.
Among the issues raised by CTAP/ABCI are:
Failure of PPA general manager Daniel Jay Santiago to address their complaint against ICTSI, which forced them to traverse its compound at the North Harbor and then charging them P5,600 per day per truck as “passing-through penalty;”
Decision by PPA to implement an “accreditation process” aside from the ‘permit to operate’ (PTO) the agency is already implementing; and,
ICTSI forcing them into another round of accreditation using one of its affiliates for the purpose despite being their direct business competitor; and, the continued implementation of ‘TABS’ (Terminal Appointment Booking System).
