KEY Thread Porterage fee in Dumaguete port

If anyone is passing through the port, please let me know if this practice is continuing.

I see there are posts on this topic from about 4 or 5 years back, but unaware, and as a dumb tourist laden with luggage, we arrived at the pier and were set upon by the porters, some of whom had no uniform and no ID, and I shooed them away initially.
We make our way past screening, and the same guy, with no ID and wearing an NBA jersey and flip flops, is now directing us toward the OceanJet desk to the left.
We had two large pieces of luggage. After they get our bags behind the desk, and our tickets in hand, we are presented with a laminated bit of paper with

"TARIFF RATE FOR PORTERAGE FEE" of 110.88 pesos per piece of luggage. I protested this immediately, but the fee was eventually paid.
I made my way back outside where I found the PPA July 28, 2015 memorandum posted with a porterage rate of 27 pesos for a luggage of up to 25 kilos transported up to 200 meters. So I found out I was taken for 4x the official porterage fee.

Knowing the distance to the end of the pier was less than 200 meters, I went back in to complain. Eventually the porter offered me 100 pesos back. I asked to see his work ID, he said he had left it at home.
Now the money is not the main thing, but after the work it took to get that much back, I took it. I also watched my bags being loaded carefully, so they did not end up in the bay.

Someone up the chain is making a good living off this scam. I emailed the PPA when we got home, and this week got a response from
Sarah R Mijares, who apologized and said an investigation was in progress, blaming the porter.
The fraudulent fee is clearly a conspiracy between the porters and the OceanJet people, I am sure this doesn't go on without knowledge of and a cut going to the management.

 

Just more fun in the Philippines.

 

Rest, relax, just cool down. You ain't gonna change this and what does it matter? A couple of small beers. I know one should draw the line, but in the grand scheme, what does this matter? My Scottish friends would say "look after the pennies, the poonds will look after themselves" but my wiser brethren would observe, "everything is in 3's, first for the master, then for the locals, what is left you bless. It will come back sooner or later".

Nb: Aled up in Cebu at the time of writing. Please do not hold the author to account at any point in future.

C

 

Quite a loot a poonds, in the grand scheme, idnit? As my friends in California would say, "You do you, I'll do me"

 

I don't let any porters handle my bags up to the point they will be checked in, if there is such a point. I have a bad back but I can still carry 50 kilos if it is distributed evenly through 2 bags and a backpack. Believe me, it sucks carrying it up one of those narrow fast craft gangplanks. My cheap bags have inline skate wheels and I drag them as necessary through gravel and rough surfaces as necessary although it tears up the wheels. I will just replace the bags as needed. I don't care about the fleabite of money for the porters but it is never a good thing to let someone scam you with impunity as it means they have little respect for you and it gets lower every time they get away with it. Kudos to Jimneda for not just taking it. They have little enough respect for us as it is.

 

The best thing you can do is publicize this information. Let people realize that many people here see tourist a wallets to be emptied, legally or illegally. Maybe even the Dumageute tourist bureau will realize the negative impact it has on the City of Dumaguete's tourist image. Why the Philippines spends so much money to promote the tourist business and then lets so many individual and groups scam people and create a poor image for the Philippines is beyond my thinking. Maybe they do not understand the power of the internet which they use to promote Dumaguete is also used by people to point out the problems to potential tourist.. Fixing the problems would be the best promotional effort the Philippines could make, but that is just my tourist type thinking here.

 

On a similar subject but different theme what is the official line on the people who try to guide you out of parking places, does anyone pay them ? i always tell them to stay out of the way because i once almost hit one as he ran behind the car as i was reversing quickly into a lull in the traffic flow.
The reason i ask is that i noticed one the other day had an official looking tag hanging around his neck but i was not close enough to read it .

 

Haha, my wife and family call them "atras boy". And yes, unless their presence was completely superfluous in the instance, they usually gave them 5 pesos or so.

 

I don’t give to beggars. I do give 10 pesos to the guy who supposedly guides me as I back out of my parking space at Hypermart. Do I need this guy’s help? Hardly, but I don’t mind keeping small change to give to someone who is doing something to support himself or his family. It may be the only job he can get, and I think he deserves something for standing out there all day. If my grocery load is heavy, one of them usually rushes out to help. He gets 10 pesos also. I haven’t noticed any significant drop in my standard of living because of this, and I hope that maybe I’m helping someone in some small way to improve his.