By TONTON ANTOGOP /GENE VALENZUELA (pooled report)
CEBU CITY- Citing several reasons, among them the vast properties of an officer of their “Federation” while they sacrificed in toiling their labor, the unionized employees and supervisors of the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corporation (OPASCOR) here have announced that they will “dissociate” from ALU-TUCP.
“Our disaffection with this giant Labor Federation stems from the years of frustration with how its leadership run the affairs of the organization. Thus, despite our fears of its powers, its act of harassment and intimidation, we stand united on our decision to dissociate ourselves from said Federation (ALU-TUCP),” part of the strongly worded press statement read issued by both the OPASCOR Rank and File Union and OPASCOR Supervisor Union Friday, October 17, 2025.
Among their allegations after a general membership meeting that finalized their decision were as follows:
✅ An officer of the federation owns a resort in Caliraya, Batangas; Pangasinan and a house in the United States of America (USA)
✅ Remittance of monthly union dues between P390 -P500 but they haven’t receive any form of assistance from the federation
✅ Allowing their Local 1 President Dennis Arciaga to withdraw money from the federation without informing their treasurer and other officers of the OPASCOR local union
✅ Collection of the federation of labor day, social impact and other monetary contributions from their company but they were not informed on what the contributions were all about since they have not received any aid from out of it
✅ Lending money to the local union members at a “Usurious Rate.” ALU established its lending arm, Labor Organization Social Amelioration Fund (LOSAF) but they are charged with 10% per month interest as mode of payment
✅ Asking the OPASCOR management to pay the salary and give the full benefits of the President of the OPASCOR Rank and File Employees Union even if the person concerned failed to report to work
✅ Unwillingness to help other affiliated unions in times of need citing the recent incident involving the Bogo-Medellin Milling Company workers where OPASCOR employees were instead asked to help while ALU-TUCP did not
Apart from their complaints, the two local union groups comprising of at least 448 individuals have approved separate board resolutions, stating that their Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) assisted by ALU-TUCP be revoked.
In the case of the supervisors union, they wanted that the remittance of their dues be given directly to the Associated Professional, Supervisory, Office and Technical Employees Union (APSOTEU), a member of the ALU-TUCP Executive Board and for APSOTEU to adopt and register a new name and henceforth declare an autonomy from ALU TUCP.
Both unions are in agreement to seek a new independent union instead that will seek a new CBA with the OPASCOR management.
OPASCOR supervisor’s union President Vivencio Ybañez, Jr. and nine (9) other officers of the union under the umbrella of APSOTEU signed the notarized board resolution while Piper Riveral, the Vice President of the rank and file union and six (6) of his fellow officers signed another notarized board resolution for their group.
The bold declaration of severing ties with ALU TUCP came exactly after a year has passed when some OPASCOR union officers led by Arciaga filed a “Notice of Strike” in September 2024 against the OPASCOR management for alleged violations in their CBA, where its major demand was the resignation of OPASCOR Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Atty. Tomas Riveral and OPASCOR General Manager Florimae Velasco.
A stalemate happened as the strike never materialized as the notice of strike itself lacked the approval of the majority since merely four (4) of its eleven (11) officers signed it including Arciaga, the Barangay Captain of Tinago.
Riveral managed to hold on as a mediation with the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) ensued and from there the lawyer triumphantly got his legitimacy as OPASCOR Chairman of the Board when he topped their Board of Directors (BOD) election in January this year.
After the death of ALU-TUCP founding President Atty. Democrito Mendoza in 2016, his son , Raymund Democrito Mendoza, slowly took the helm of the federation, considered the largest trade union center in the Philippines since 1975.
The elder Mendoza himself founded OPASCOR in 1990 plucking, CPA/lawyer Riveral from the accountancy and shipping industry where the two established it into what is now called the “workers enterprise”, reportedly the very first in the country, which got the “contract” as the exclusive cargo handling service provider of the Cebu International Port (CIP).
Apart from being the ALU-TUCP President, the younger Mendoza is also the TUCP Partylist congressman but despite his stature, it is just during his rein that OPASCOR wanted to dissociate.
NewStar Philippines welcomes any reaction from the ALU-TUCP leadership regarding the matter since it has not yet issued any statement to the media after the two OPASCOR unions had their press conference that followed their general membership meeting to announce their decision.
(the historic general assembly meeting of the OPASCOR unionized rank and file employees and supervisors last October 17 where they announced their decision to diassociate with ALU-TUCP)
(another photo angle of the general assembly meeting of the unionized rank and file employees and supervisors of OPASCOR in the CPA gym last October 17 that resulted in their decision to severe ties with ALU-TUCP)
