Solon's hand in Iloilo port arrastre services bidding seen
Local bidders for cargo handling services at the Muelle Loney wharf have cried foul over the imminent awarding of contract to Manila-based Prudential Customs Brokerage Services, Inc. (PCBSI).
PCBSI, owned by the Ibuna family, is said to be backed by Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo, brother-in-law of Pres. Arroyo.
Four companies submitted their bids to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) in a bidding held in Cebu City last September 17. They were: Iloilo-based Iloilo Integrated Arrastre Services Corporation (ILIASCO) and Consolidated Port Management Services, Inc. (CPMSI); Davao-based Filipinas Port Services, Inc. Davao; and PCBSI.
Insider information says PCBSI is set to win the bidding because of the alleged intercession of the presidential brother-in-law.
Rep. Arroyo is reportedly a "special friend" of Grace Ibuna one of PCBSI's top executives.
PPA took over the operations of Muelle Loney wharf in 2004 upon the initiative of former Senator Franklin Drilon.
Francisco Salem, PPA Port Services Division manager, confirmed that the cargo handling services at Muelle Loney wharf will again be privatized but he said proper bidding procedures are being followed. He could not yet say when the winning bidder will be announced.
ILIASCO has been providing cargo handling services at the Muelle Loney wharf since March 1976 and is widely believed to easily renew its contract with the PPA.
That is, before PCBSI, buoyed by the alleged support it is enjoying from the President's brother-in-law, entered the picture and positioned itself to collar the lucrative deal.
ILIASCO's major shareholders include Fast Cargo Corp. of the Chongbian family; Feliciano Casing of Cebu; company president Atty. Gerson Espinosa, Sr.; and Helen Jimenea Divinagracia, who sits in the board after the death of original director Antonio Jimenea; among others.
The News Today (TNT) gathered that PCSBI started out as a customs brokerage company before branching out to providing arrastre services.
Curiously, it was able to corner cargo handling services contract in small ports in the Visayas and Mindanao only during the Arroyo administration.
Since 2001, it was able to acquire the arrastre services contract of three ports in Palawan--Puerto Princesa, Brooke's Point and Coron, as well as that of the Dapitan Port in Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte, in San Jose, Mindoro, and in Dumaguete City.
Muelle Loney wharf would be PCBI's seventh port if it becomes successful in getting the contract.
Iloilo, however, would be special in that it would be the biggest port PCBSI would handle in terms of annual cargo throughput.
Meanwhile, a reliable source told TNT that PCBSI's acquisition of the arrastre services contract in the six ports was not without problems.
The source said at the Dumaguete Port, PCBSI is presently facing a strike of some 100 workers belonging to the Association of Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) for alleged violation of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between them and their previous employer, Cipres Stevedoring and Arrastre Inc.
The strike, which started last September 9 yet, came after PCBSI, the winning bidder for cargo handling services, refused to take all of them in. This has reportedly resulted in income losses of nearly P20 million to the PPA and the shipping lines operating at the said port.
The experience of port workers in Dumaguete has given rise to fears among their counterparts here in Iloilo that they might suffer a similar fate once PCBSI wins the cargo handling services contract here, especially after a lawyer for the said company has made it clear in an interview that "the employment of the porters is a management prerogative."