"I accept I failed."

Tears rolled down the face of Dumaguete Port Manager Renato Tolinero as he announced the indefinite closure of the Dumaguete port Wednesday, citing unsettled disputes and the need to maintain order within the port premises as the cause.

The Port of Dumaguete, a vital link in President Gloria Macapagal -Arroyo's Strong Republic Nautical Highway, was ordered closed by PPA  General Manager Oscar Sevilla after violence broke out on Saturday  as police were enforcing a Temporary Restraining Order issued of the  National Labor Relations Commission.

A group of former port workers belonging to the former arrastre firm had staged a strike at the port gates demanding, for their absorption into the new cargo handling agency, the Prudential Customs Brokerage Services Inc.

The PCBSI, which took over the cargo handling operations at the   Dumaguete port last March 11, accepted all but 30 of the previous  workers of the company, mostly leaders of the union affiliated with the Associated Labor Unions.

Tolinero said he had received verbal instructions through his cellphone to close the Dumaguete port.

 "Yesterday (Tuesday) I received three calls and before I started the press conference (Wednesday), I called (GM Sevilla) just to let you hear the instructions. I was also informed that the official communication will follow."

Tolinero said this is the first time in the PPA's history that they are closing a port. "It’s disheartening to close the port. Everybody is a loser. Nobody is a winner with this kind of situation. We have to make sacrifices to solve this problem."

The PPA had been handling the cargo operations at the Dumaguete port for the last six years through a Special Takeover Unit, which absorbed the workers of the defunct Cipres Stevedoring and Arrastre Inc.

The PPA bidded out the cargo handling operations at the Dumaguete  port in late 2006, which was awarded to PCBSI in early 2007. But the PCBSI was not able to immediately assume control over the   cargo handling operations as they awaited the outcome of a case they filed to compel the PPA to enforce the contract.

In October last  year, the PCBSI tried to assume the cargo handling operations but the  ALU workers staged a strike that prevented PCBSI from entering the  port premises.

Dumaguete Mayor Agustin Perdices expressed sadness over the PPA   decision as this meant a setback in the economic and social development of the city. He said the solution to this problem is beyond their level in Dumaguete.

Perdices was at the port area Saturday when police tried to enforce the TRO issued by the NLRC to the ALU strikers, who were joined by their wives and children. The operation turned violent as the strikers threw stones at the policemen and used the poles of their placards as spears. Some policemen were wounded in the scuffle. The policemen, Perdices noted, were not able to fight back because the mothers used their babies as shields.

Perdices said Senior Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, police director of Negros Oriental, was preparing to enforce the TRO again last Sunday when Department of Transportation and Communications Assistant Secretary Elena Bautista asked him (Buenafe) not to do so until the situation cools down.

"Whether Bautista was authorized to tell that to Buenafe or not is  beyond me, but it was she who made the call," the mayor said. The PPA is under the DOTC.

Perdices also said he tried to negotiate with the PPA to allow  passenger services at the port to continue, as had been the case for  the last three weeks, but Bautista turned him down.

He read a text message from Bautista which partly said, "The decision  to close the whole port operation stays. Let’s just wait for the NLRC decision. We can’t be discriminating in our operations, both cargo and passengers have the right to use the port. We can’t allow both to operate, we’re better off closed."

The mayor noted that both the ALU and the PCBSI have reasons for   doing what they are doing. "We tried to play the referee. I really am at a loss right now."

The Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, expressed concern over the closure of the port, saying this would have an immediate  effect on prices of local goods because most products sold in  Dumaguete have to be shipped from other provinces.

The NOCCI, chaired by Manuel Sagarbarria, passed a resolution in an emergency meeting yesterday calling on the PPA to restore cargo and  passenger services at the Dumaguete port.

The NOCCI also said that an alternative immediate remedy would be to restore passenger services to and from Dumaguete in the higher interest of the public good.*AP

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