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CEBU CITY, Philippines - Fifty-three people who used to work as porters for Sulpicio Lines Inc. (SLI) are the latest additions to the list of beneficiaries of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s assistance to the company’s laid-off workers.
They join 238 other former SLI employees who have been laid off since the sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars in June, prompting the government to ground all other Sulpicio vessels, which in turn forced the company to trim down its workforce.
The porters will be screened by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to determine how they could best be provided with assistance – cash, another job, scholarships or food.
Screening of the former porters started only on Tuesday.
Virgilio Sevilla, Lou Amoen and Grego Monsulod were the first to get screened on Tuesday after the SLI Solid Porters Multi-Purpose Cooperative informed them of their inclusion in the DSWD’s list.
Sevilla said he worked for SLI for 24 years before he was laid off. He said he earned P150 a day as a porter.
SLI has assured that the lay-off was temporary – only until the company’s ships are allowed to sail again.
Sevilla said he hoped to receive financial assistance from the DSWD instead of another job because he would rather wait to work for SLI again.
“It won’t be long until we’re back to our old jobs. All I want is some money to stave off hunger,” Sevilla said in Cebuano.
The DSWD has not given any indication when the assistance would be given.
Edna Regudo of the DSWD’s Crisis Prevention Unit said many former SLI employees on the list have not come in for assessment yet.
Others have been visiting the DSWD office repeatedly, but have nothing to show for it.
Eduardo Buan said he and some others have been going to DSWD for the past two weeks and they have yet to see any form of the President’s promised assistance.
Buan, who used to work as a mess crew member of the MV Filipina Princess, said in the 30 years he had worked with SLI, the past few weeks have been the hardest.
“We’ve tried getting temporarily laid off before when our ship goes into dry dock. But we would get reassigned to another boat shortly thereafter. Now, we can’t work at all because all boats have been grounded,” Buan said in Cebuano.
Buan hoped that, at the very least, SLI’s roll-on, roll-off vessels could be allowed to operate so that some laid-off employees could get back to work.
During President Arroyo’s visit to Cebu two weeks ago, transportation officials assured that they would lift the grounding of SLI’s vessels as soon as an audit on all the company’s ships would have been completed, which they estimated to take a week.
Vicente Suazo, administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), said his office’s audit on all SLI vessels was complete. The reports have been forwarded to Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza.
No order has been given to lift the grounding on SLI’s vessels.
Suazo declined to say what the reports contained.
He said the audit took some time because Marina did not want to leave anything out.
“We refused to do thing hastily because if there were any defects missed, we’ll put the lives of passengers in danger,” he said. /With Correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan
