The Cebu Port Authority (CPA) implemented a moratorium on payment of berthing and anchorage fees for domestic vessels on hold departure as well as fees/rentals for areas and spaces inside passenger terminals buildings (PTB).
According to CPA Administrative Order (AO) No. 02-2020, when a domestic vessel is not cleared for departure to its next port of call due to quarantine measures related to fighting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), it will be exempt from paying berthing or anchorage fee for the duration of its hold-departure period.
AO 02-2020, signed by CPA general manager Leonilo Miole on May 12, takes effect from March 16, 2020 until June 30, 2020 or when domestic passenger or passenger-cargo vessels are allowed to sail or when normal port operations have resumed, whichever comes first.
The moratorium does not cover domestic cargo and cargo-passenger vessels allowed to operate but they will be assessed on a daily basis in keeping with existing rates prescribed by CPA. This is in recognition that such vessels also “suffered and continue to suffer the effects of the pandemic and the imposition of COVID-19 quarantine measures…” and provide “unhampered flow of goods during this crisis…,” the AO stated.
The moratorium also covers permit fees or rental for concessionaire spaces, stalls, booths, check-in counters at CPA PTBs, and similar commercial spaces at the CPA baseport and sub-ports which ceased operation due to the quarantine measures.
Cebu Provincial Governor Gwendolyn F. Garcia on March 14 issued Executive Order No. 5-F, Series of 2020, prohibiting the entry of all arriving passengers in all seaports within Cebu province for 30 days. Cebu province has been placed under enhanced community quarantine since the latter part of March and will transition to modified enhanced community quarantine from May 16 to 31.
READ: Cebu province under ECQ from Mar 27; cargo activities unhampered
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, through Executive Order No. 052, also declared the City of Cebu under a state of general community quarantine (GCQ) from March 16 to April 14 and ordered seaports to be closed to passenger arrivals except for cargo deliveries of essential goods.
READ: MM, Laguna, Cebu transitioning to modified ECQ until May 31
In compliance to these orders, CPA closed all PTBs in Cebu for 30 days effective March 18, 2020. – Roumina Pablo
