Osmeña to Cebu port unions: Go ahead with protest action

CEBU CITY - Go ahead, let them protest.

This was the brief response of Sen. John Osmeña, as quoted by a senior staffer yesterday, to the threat of the Associated Labor Unions-National Union of Portworkers in the Philippines (ALU-NUPP) that it will stage a massive protest on April 17 against his alleged anti-labor stance.

Osmeña earlier had said that he would ask concerned government agencies not to renew the contract of the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor), the cargo handling firm servicing the Cebu International Port, claiming the family of ALU-NUPP head Democrito Mendoza has allegedly used it as a milking cow.

Osmeña said the only way Opascor can be spared of this situation is for Mendoza to resign from its board and divest himself of any interest in the company.

Reacting to Osmeña's pronouncements, the ALU-NUPP asked the senator to resign. It intends to dramatize this call in a march-rally as part of the ALU's 46th anniversary activities.

The protesters intend to strip themselves to the waist to protest "Osmeña's stripping the unions of their rights and the worker-entrepreneurs of Opascor their prerogative to decide for themselves corporate matters pertaining to the cargo handling firm." ALU spokeswoman Sundita Sayson earlier said the workers "may strip all the way down against Osmeña."

For its part, the Coalition of Shipowners and Arrastre Operators is keeping its hands off the exchange of barbs between Osmeña and the ALU-NUPP.

Coalition president Florentino Palacio declined to comment, saying the issue is not a direct concern of shipowners.

Earlier, coalition spokesman and chief lawyer Bernardito Florido had repeatedly urged the government to dismantle Opascor's monopoly, saying this had always been the group's concern.

Florido has also objected to the perceived move of the ALU-NUPP to take control of the port workers' social amelioration fund.

Cebu Port Authority Commissioner Cerecio Mapula exposed the ALU move by presenting documents that the union, in cooperation with the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), has established a corporation that would manage the fund.

The corporation has been mentioned in PPA guidelines for the setting up of similar funds in other Philippine ports.

But the unions said the fund cannot be controlled by any single party since the same guidelines provide that trustee-banks receive payments and disburse the funds for the port workers.-