The Associated Labor Unions on Tuesday has expressed concern and apprehension on the opening for bidding of the porter services at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

According to ALU-TUCP national president Michael Mendoza, the bidding may displace the long-time and valued porter service provider and members of the Mactan Airport Porters Association amid price hikes and increased joblessness in the country.

He added that at least 200 MAPA-ALU-TUCP porters work at the MCIA as the MAPA-ALU-TUCP has been serving the airport for 60 years now.

"They are part of the reason that the airport is a safe, comfortable and welcoming gateway of Cebu and the entire Central Visayas. Thanks in part to their six decades of service and sacrifice, the MCIA was first airport in the Philippines to receive the Airport Customer Experience Accreditation from the Airports Council International," Mendoza said.

"This is a sterling testament to the long-proven integrity of the porters as well as their merit. This debunks unfair and unfounded rumors only meant to slander honest and hardworking porters just trying to earn an honest living," he added.

The ALU-TUCP official also stressed that porters are not nameless and faceless and not mere cogs in a machine.

"For more than half a century now, MAPA-ALU-TUCP porters have been honestly and competently serving Cebu, from the then Lahug Airport to the now-MCIA. Their jobs should not be put at risk, neither should they just be casually cast aside," Mendoza said.

The GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation is scheduled to award the winning bidder on 20 November 2023.

The appeal of the porters to save their jobs comes at a time when job security is of utmost importance and heightened unemployment and underemployment.

According to the September 2023, Philippine Statistics Authority Labor Force Survey, unemployment increased to 4.5 percent while underemployment, although decreasing to 10.7 percent, has remained in double digits for far too long already.

These translate to more than 2 million Filipinos out of job while more than 5 million have a job yet are still seeking additional hours of work or another job because their current earnings, eroded by inflation, cannot feed their families with nutritious meals and provide them with a decent life.

"Our call to the management is to seize this win-win opportunity of retaining MAPA-ALU-TUCP porters, that will enable them to feed their families nutritious meals and give them a decent life, while at the same time upholding the Mactan Cebu International Airport as one of the best airports here and elsewhere," Mendoza said.

DAILY TRIBUNE has yet to receive the reply from GMR-Megawide as MCIAA officials, the bidding of the porterage services, are with GMR.