ROTA Terminal and Transfer’s certified crane operator Fidel S. Mendiola Jr. on Friday explained why the offloading of container vans from a barge on June 11, 2023, was delayed.
In a letter to Rota Ports Manager Sharlene Manglona, Mendiola said there were “a few issues that needed to be addressed that was not mentioned in the news reporting by [Sen.] Paul Manglona.”
It was the senator who relayed the complaints of affected Rota business owners to Commonwealth Ports Authority Executive Director Christopher Tenorio.
According to Mendiola, on June 11 and 12, “there was swell inside the pier making offloading very challenging and dangerous.”
He said because of the swell, the barge was constantly moving away from the pier, making the offloading very dangerous.
He said they had to stop the offloading three times because the ropes were snapped by the swell.
But he said they were able to offload container vans despite the dangerous condition.
Mendiola said he asked the barge captain to keep the engine running to keep the 200-foot-long vessel from swaying at the pier, which, he added, is only 100 feet long.
“We had to do a lot of shifting of the barge to maneuver and offload. As you can imagine, this is not easy,” Mendiola told the ports manager.
According to a Rota business owner, Rota Terminal and Transfer or RTT offloaded only 11 of the 15 container vans. The barge then left for Guam on Monday last week with the four other container vans still on board. Two of the containers were consigned to Harvest Mart, one to Sinapalo Safeway Store and one to Ace Hardware.
Mendiola said the barge handler told him that it took Saipan stevedores two days at the Ports of Saipan loading the same cargo even though the Saipan port is well-equipped and is in better condition than the port at Rota West Harbor.
“What can we expect from our port facility? Yet we were able to offload what we can,” Mendiola said.
He said RTT was told that the barge was going to stay at Rota West Harbor for three days. To their surprise, however, they were told the next day that the barge had to leave by 5 p.m. Monday because it was needed in Guam where a big ship was scheduled to arrive.
So “we did all we could to offload in the rain and no break in between to meet their time,” Mendiola said.
He said Sen. Manglona mentioned only the 11 container vans that were offloaded and failed to mention the other bulk of cargos that RTT was able to offload during those two days. These included 111 loose cargos of pallets, bundles, crates, one huge generator and eight vehicles.
“So, for anyone to come out and just comment like that in the newspaper is very unacceptable and misleading to the public,” Mendiola said. “Before Paul Manglona makes comments publicly, he should first find out what transpired with his fellow citizens of Rota who work at RTT.”
Sen. Manglona on Saturday said that the vessel was secured at the dock at 7:15 a.m. on June 11, but RTT stevedores did not prepare the equipment. He said they wasted two hours, waiting until 9:15 a.m. before starting to offload the shipments.
The senator said business owners watching the offloading of the shipment did not see the rope snapping or breaking due to swell. The ocean condition on June 11, Sunday, he added, was fairly smooth. On Monday, it was a little choppy up to early afternoon but there was no rope breakage, he added.
He said it takes two days to load the shipment on Saipan because loading is more difficult than offloading. Stevedores have to make sure that the load on the barge is within weight and balance, and they need to organize the placement of cargo on deck, he added.
With Richelle Ann Agpoon
