The Port Management Office of Misamis Oriental/Cagayan de Oro wraps up the year 2021 with 181,898 repatriated Filipinos assisted in all the ports under its jurisdiction – 104, 276 disembarked and 77,622 embarked passengers.  This is in participation of the government-initiated “Hatid-Tulong Program”, which was created in 2020 in partnership with the Department of Transportation (DOTr), National Task Force on COVID-19 (NTF-COVID), and other concerned government agencies, to assist and transport Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and Locally Stranded Individuals (LSIs) back to their respective provinces.

Additionally, to provide further assistance to its port stakeholders, the Philippine Ports Authority waived the collection of dockage fees for domestic ship calls under PPA MC 42-2020 as amended by PPA MC No. 02-2021 extending its implementation from 28 January 2021 to 30 June 2021.  The PMO MO/C was able waive a total of Php 2,935,551.94 dockage fees for domestic ship calls from 1 January 2021 – 5 April 2021.

Aside from the difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, ports from different areas also suffered major damages and losses during the onslaught of Typhoon “Odette”, the strongest storm that reached the country for the year 2021.  The province of Misamis Oriental, Camiguin, and Surigao were among the affected areas, with the latter experiencing the most damage as it was in the eye of the storm.  PMOs from Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Lanao del Norte, and others were able to provide prompt support and sent relief goods to Surigao. The PPA Memorandum Circular No. 23-2021 “Financial and Operational Assistance to Agencies and Organizations involved in Tropical Storm (T/S) Odette Response, Relief, and Reconstruction Operations” was issued on 21 December 2021 to assist ports under PPA’s jurisdiction affected by the said typhoon. The circular granted authority to affected ports to waive the collection of the Passenger Terminal Building Fee and RORO Terminal Fee until 20 January 2022. The PMO MO/C was able to waive a total of Php 87,053.56 PTB and RORO Terminal Fees.