Court orders private firm to vacate Dumangas port

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

All 45 barangays of Dumangas, Iloilo will benefit from the P3 million to P4 million monthly windfall once the town handles the cargo handling operations of the Dumangas port.

This, as the more than a decade dispute over the cargo handling operations of the port is nearing its conclusion after the Regional Trial Court Branch 68 in the town ordered the private firm overseeing the operations to vacate and turn over the facility to the municipal government.

Remcy Denila, RTC Branch 68 deputy sheriff, served the writ of execution and notice to vacate to United Dumangas Port Development Corp. (UDPDC) of the Divinagracia family three days ago.

The notice said UDPDC has five days to leave the port premises and turn over the cargo handling operations to the Dumangas municipal government headed by Mayor Ronaldo Golez.

“Please be advised that by virtue of the Writ of Execution dated April 14, 2021, duly issued by this Court, in the above-entitled case, a copy of which is hereto attached and likewise served upon you, you are hereby given a period of FIVE (5) WORKING DAYS from receipt within which to voluntarily deliver to the Municipality of Dumangas and the improvements or developments and equipments subject of the valuation, otherwise failure on your part to comply with this notice, our office will be constrained to enforce the Writ of Execution to the full limit of the law,” the notice reads.

Golez told Daily Guardian that the development is good news for the municipality of Dumangas which was compelled by the court to reimburse UDPDC some P21 million for the developments and equipment it made and installed in the port.

Golez said funds intended for the barangays were pooled and realigned for UDPDC’s reimbursement.

“The original amount was P11 million but UDPDC added their heavy equipment and it ballooned to P21 million. The town prepared for it two years ago by realigning the funds for barangays at P200,000 each, so we were able to come up with P9 million. But barangays with savings reverted their excess funds to the municipal government and the amount increased to around P14 million. We were able to raise another P7 million to reach the P21 million. The barangays were the ones who pitched the bulk of the reimbursement funds,” he added.

Golez said UDPDC profited from the port for 18 years and “the town had to pay them P21 million more which is very painful.”

He said the court order allowing the town to take over the cargo handling operations is a victory for Dumangas.

“We will know between now and April 20 if how will UDPDC accept the decision of the RTC. For now, we consider this a victory and good news for us because the town stands to earn around P3 million to P4 million a month from the cargo handling operations. And that revenue will be set aside to the barangays for their sacrifices in this case,” he added.

Golez asked UDPDC to peacefully accept the court’s decision “because they are also Dumangasanons.”

The dispute started in 2005 when the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) decided not to extend UDPDC’s permit to operate and instead conducted a bidding for a new cargo handling operator.

UDPDC disputed the bidding which led to a protracted legal battle that reached the Supreme Court.

The municipality of Dumangas intervened in the case on the basis of its Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the PPA, Project Management Office-Ports (PMO), the defunct Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on June 30, 1999.

The MOA aimed to strengthen the capability of Local Government Units (LGUs) to a planned and desirable sustainable feeder ports operation as well as PPA Administrative Order No, 02-9814 dated August 31, 1998 which provided for the devolution of port management functions from the PPA to the LGUs concerned.

On August 12, 2015, the SC ruled in G.R. No. 192943 that “in view of the expiration of UDPDC’s permit to operate the port, and in the absence of any contract renewing the same, UDPDC cannot claim to have any right to the administration thereof.”

“…The series of hold-over authorities as well as the final holdover permit granting UDPDC a three (3)-month extension was clearly temporary in nature. As aptly found by the trial court, UDPDC’s continued operation of the port was merely by PPA’s tolerance, having no valid and existing permit, and that UDPDC’s status was merely on the basis of a holdover authority, temporary in nature, which may be recalled by PPA at any time. As such, the holdover permits should have served as adequate notice to UDPDC that, at any time, its authority to remain within the premises of the port of Dumangas may be terminated. That PPA arbitrarily revoked UDPDC’s permit upon the dictates of a powerful politician in the fourth congressional district of Iloilo is a mere speculation, unsupported in evidence,” the SC decision added.

The High Tribunal also reinstated the decision of RTC Branch 68 of Dumangas ordering “the delivery to the Municipality of Dumangas the operation of the cargo handling services of the Port of Dumangas, after the Municipality has reimbursed petitioner United Dumangas Port Development Corporation of the value of its development and improvements introduced on the Port and the value of its infrastructures and equipment used in the operation thereof.”

“For this purpose, the records of this case are hereby REMANDED to the Regional Trial Court of P.D. Monfort North, Dumangas, Iloilo, Branch 68, for the proper determination of the value of equipment and improvements introduced by petitioner on the Port of Dumangas,” it added.