Tom: Ship owners must keep their hands off CPA

CEBU, Philippines – Cebu City South Rep. Tomas Osmeña said he is worried with how the Cebu Port Authority is being run with the shippers being allowed to have a say on who should be the general manager.

Osmeña said that he is against ship owners "having something to say" as to who will be CPA's general manager, likening it to letting inmates decided who should be the jail warden.

"I'm against that. It's just having the BBRC inmates choose their own warden. The job of the GM is to police the area," he said.

CPA General Manager Vicente Suazo Jr. said that although he is representing the shipping industry to the CPA Board, he knows for a fact that ship owners do not like him.

Last October 17, President Benigno Aquino III appointed the new port commissioners and retained Suazo. Aside from Suazo, the new port commissioners are Benjamin Akol, Arturo Barrit, Joselito Pedaria, Carlos Co, and Dennis Villamor.

All of the new port commissioners have not yet received their official appointment as of yesterday.

Suazo is the current CPA general manager while Akol is currently the president of Philippine Cargo and Stevedoring Operators. Suazo and Akol will be representing the ship owners and the shipping operators.

Barrit, a labor leader from the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and Pedaria, the legal counsel of ALU-TUCP, will represent the cargo handling and stevedoring sector.

Co, former president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, owner of the Cebu Oversea Hardware and president of Golden Great Value Properties Inc. together with Villamor, currently the CPA deputy general manager, will represent the business sector.

The Cebu Port Commission is composed of a chairman, the secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication while the six commissioners shall represent the shipping operators, owners, the cargo handling sector and the business sector.

The commission's vice chairman shall be elected from among the six commissioners and shall be designated concurrently as the CPA general manager.

Osmeña added that Suazo is being pushed down by ship owners because the latter is strict but the congressman said all the more Suazo should stay as general manager.

"The port authority needs somebody who is strict. What's important is the say of the people and they are not even represented in the board. In the case of Suazo, he's being pushed down because they said he's strict. But I said the more you should be there," Osmeña added.

The new set of port commissioners has yet to elect among themselves who will be the port's next general manager. - Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon and Jessica Ann R. Pareja/BRP (FREEMAN)