Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) General Manager Jay Daniel Santiago ordered on Thursday, Dec, 21, a suspension on the permit to operate (PTO) of the two local partners of an international cruise line following the viral incident of alleged poor and dismal services to cruise ship passengers at the Port of Manila on Nov. 30.
Santiago said the Ben Line Agencies were meted with 30-day PTO suspension while the same order was imposed on TravelPeople Ltd. Inc., the shore excursion agent of the MV Norwegian Jewel.
The PTO serves as an authority for port service providers to operate inside PPA ports and with order, both the Ben Line Agencies and the TravelPeople Ltd. Inc. will not be allowed to operate inside any PPA ports, harbors, fairways and extensions.
“Within that period of suspension, they will be given enough time to think on how they could improve their services to avoid the repeat of incident,” said Santiago.
The suspension stemmed from the viral post of a cruise ship passenger of the hardship they went through when they docked at the Port of Manila on Nov. 30.
The post, which was captioned “Cruise Chaos”, went viral on social media and put into question the readiness of the Philippines to accommodate cruise ships.
Santiago, whose programs and projects include improvement of port facilities to accommodate more cruise ships as part of the tourism push, was angered of the incident and immediately ordered a thorough investigation.
On Dec. 18, the Ben Line Agencies wrote a letter to explain its side and pointed to TravelPeople Ltd. Inc as responsible for taking care of the transportation of the cruise passengers.
During the investigation, terminal operator na Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) said that it has not received any information from the Ben Line Agencies, the ship agent of the MV Norwegian Jewel, of the cruise ship arrival.
“This is not acceptable especially that we have pre-arrival meetings to prepare everything for the arrival,” said Santiago.
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And this is the reason, according to Santiago, why stern corrective measures to prevent the repeat of similar incidents.
“On the part of the PPA, we have been improving our ports to promote tourism. So we expect our partners to also improve their services,” said Santiago.
“In this case, we want to correct the things that were done wrong based on the viral post,” he added.
He also expressed gratitude to the person who posted the complaint on social media, as it paved the way for the PPA to take actions.
Currently, the PPA has been holding a series of meetings to prepare for the arrival of another cruise ship on Jan. 6 at the port of Manila wherein around 3,000 passengers are expected to arrive.