Mayor Agustin Perdices yesterday said he will support the local police in implementing peace and order at the reopened Dumaguete port zone, even as strikers said they will  continue  to  block all  cargo that  will pass  through  the area. 

Perdices said the strike  area  is  part of  the port  zone,  and the  local  police  will support  only  the  port  police. The  dispersal of  the  strikers  will  be  done  by  port  policemen while  the  local  police will   provide  the  support, he added.

Port  manager  Renato Tolinero said he  needs  the  support  of  the  local PNP because  the  situation  cannot be  solely handled  by  the  Philippine Ports Authority.

Tolinero said, as much as possible, they want to prevent bloodshed, and added that, he has directed the port police to observe maximum tolerance. However, if  situations  become  unmanageable, the  port police  will  have  to  do  their  job to protect  PPA-owned  property, he added.

The city port management  awaiting  for the  National Labor Relations Commission   to  take  immediate  action  on the  problem, because  the  issue  has paralyzed a lot of  operations, Tolinero said.

Meanwhile,  strikers  vowed not  to  destroy  any  PPA  property  but said   they  will  continue  to  block all  cargo that  will pass  through  the  port.  They  said  they  will  not stop  until  all of them are  installed  back  to work  as  stevedores.

About 50 former port workers under the Associated Labor Unions forced a stalemate in port operations Saturday by entering the gates of the PPA, pushing themselves further inside the zone.

Tolinero said the port police did not resist the entry of the strikers to prevent violence, although he clarified that he had informed the Department of Transportation and Communications about the situation, so it can order the police to remove the strikers from the port area.

The ALU has demanded that PCBSI, the new arrastre and cargo provider, absorb all of its 118 members and recognize their union as the collective bargaining agent.

The strikers have filed a case in court and said they will take the matter up to the Supreme Court.*MA

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