THE Commonwealth Ports Authority is looking into the rising rates of stevedoring services on Rota, which could further increase the cost of living there.
In an interview on Monday, CPA Executive Director Leo Tudela said members of the island’s business community brought the matter to CPA’s attention when he and CPA Board Chairman Jose C. Ayuyu traveled to Rota last week.
Tudela said CPA will see what it can do to address concerns regarding Rota Terminal & Transfer’s stevedoring service rates, which according to shipping agent Pete Q. Dela Cruz are “astronomically high.”
The rate for crane services, for example, went up to $500 per hour from $290 per hour or a 72% increase, while labor services went up to $360.60 per hour from $283.68 per hour or a 27% increase.
In his follow-up letter to Ayuyu, Dela Cruz said “the application of this rate increase will definitely create an economic chaos of which the multiplier effect of this action will be immense.”
Dela Cruz wants CPA to advise RT&T “to hold back the rate increase until CPA reviews the contract terms and conditions relative to the overall operation….”
Dela Cruz added, “I must stress that if this problem continues to exist, I am of the opinion that Seabridge will have no choice but to discontinue shipping services to Rota entirely and this will be bad for the residents of Rota as well as the entire Commonwealth economy as a whole.”
During the CPA officials’ visit to Rota, Dela Cruz told them that the rate increase was not in compliance with the published tariff. RT&T did not announce the rate increase as required by the tariff rules, he added.
Dela Cruz said “it appears that the [higher] rates…were not reviewed and approved by their board of directors.”
He noted that RT&T has no elected board of directors for many years now. The present and current tariff was last published in July 2010 and there is no record of an amended tariff to reflect a rate increase for services over the years, Dela Cruz added.
He said due to RT&T’s rate increase, Seabridge, for which he works as an agent, is now assessing and notifying its clients about the rate change because it will also affect their freight charges.
He said Seabridge was planning to resume shipping service from Saipan to Rota on April 2, 2024. But due to the rate hike, Dela Cruz said, “they are holding back on the exact schedule to resume regular…shipping service.”
Variety was unable to get a comment from RT&T.
