DUMAGUETE CITY - Striking port workers belonging to the Associated  Labor Unions have agreed to allow cargoes to be shipped out of the  Dumaguete port.

City Legal Officer Neil Ray Lagahit said this is the outcome of  yesterday's meeting between the ALU, Prudential Customs and  Brokerage Inc. and city officials at the PPA office, to find a  solution to the present crisis.

The workers, who have declared a strike, have barricaded the entry  and exit gates of the port, preventing cargo trucks and other  vehicles from entering the port area to send or pick up cargoes and  passengers.

The ALU declared a strike last weekend to press for the hiring of all  the unionized workers by the new company, the Prudential Customs and  Brokerage Inc.

PCBI has hired most of the workers but opted not to hire about 30  persons, who are mostly the union leaders.

Felizardo Calimpong, ALU provincial coordinator, said  the  decision of the Philippine Ports Authority to allow the PCBI to  take over the port arrastre and stevedoring operations last March 12  was premature and illegal because they still have a pending case.

Calimpong said they filed a case against the PPA last year for union  busting and unfair labor practice.

"We lost the case but we have filed a motion for reconsideration which is now pending before the  National Labor Relations Commission," he said, adding that they  intend to take the matter all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Calimpong said the ALU has filed a motion before the Secretary of  Labor to cite both the PPA and the PCBI for contempt for changing the  companies while their case was pending.

Mayor Agustin Perdices said he has scheduled a meeting on Monday with  the decision makers of PCBI and ALU, along with Rep. George Arnaiz  and Gov. Emilio Macias II.

Perdices said PCBI wanted the police to escort the cargo trucks inside  the port but Lagahit said that before that could be done, there has  to be a declaration by the Department of Labor and Employment that the strike is  illegal.

Meanwhile, the PCBI counsel, Joel Obar, scored Perdices' decision to  await a declaration from the DOLE  about the illegality  of the strike before any police action could be undertaken.

"The peace and order situation in the port of Dumaguete is  deteriorating because of the lack of political will, either by design  or character on the part of the local executive to enforce the laws  and ordinances of the land. For as long as politicians adversely  interfere in purely police work, the community is under siege by  interest groups whose motives are more personal than public," Obar  said in a text message.

The PCBI counsel called on the people of Dumaguete and Negros  Oriental  to condemn and express their rage against government's  inaction at the local level. "Prudential Customs and Brokerage Inc.   has travelled the extra mile to open negotiations for  humanitarian reasons but this gesture is apparently ignored.  Let the people of Dumaguete and Negros Oriental know that PCBI has only real and genuine intentions to serve the public with dedication and excellence," he said.*

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