BY ADRIAN STEWART CO and GLENDA TAYONA
MANILA – How seaworthy are the motorboats plying the Iloilo-Guimaras route? Following the capsizing of three boats on Aug. 3, the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) grounded all the motorboats crisscrossing the Iloilo Strait.
“The MARINA has suspended the operation of all passenger motorbancas operating the Iloilo-Guimaras route, subject to review and assessment of safety conditions of said vessels until further notice,” read the agency’s advisory.
In lieu of the motorboats, according to MARINA, people traveling to Iloilo City from Guimaras and vice versa would be served by two roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) barges of Tristar and Montenegro shipping companies.
It allowed the ro-ro vessels to increase the frequency of their trips.
A fast craft was also allowed to ferry people and cargo from Iloilo City to Guimaras and back.
MARINA is investigating Saturday’s incident separate from that of the Philippine Coast Guard.
As of yesterday, the death toll climbed to 31.
MARINA also joined in the search, rescue and retrieval operations.
According to Engineer Roel Pador, senior shipping specialist of MARINA in Western Visayas, the agency had long ordered the phase-out of wooden-hulled passenger sea vessels.
MARINA Circular 2016-02 Series of 2016 pushed for the modernization of sea vessels, he said.
“However, ang sa Guimaras kon i-phase out, ano sakyan sang mga tawo?” asked Pador over DyFM Bombo Radyo Iloilo.
The official said among the matters that MARINA probers would be checking were the design of the Iloilo-Guimaras wooden-hulled motorboats and the implementation of the rule on the wearing of lifejackets.
In Saturday’s sea mishap, most of the dead passengers were found wearing lifejackets but they got trapped under the capsized boats.
When MARINA issued Circular 2016-02 three years ago, it had hoped that in two years’ time, or 2018, no more wooden passenger vessels would be plying various sea routes in Western Visayas.
Sea accidents mostly involve wooden vessels, thus their phase-out, explained MARINA.
It, however, acknowledged the financial challenges that wooden boat operators faced thus it set a gradual phase-out.
In 2016, 108 wooden passenger motorboats were plying the Iloilo-Guimaras route, according to the coastguard.
Meanwhile, Marina’s regional office in Iloilo City created a help desk to coordinate with other involved agencies (coastguard, Philippine Ports Authority and local government units).
It also announced that each casualty from Saturday’s mishap shall receive P200,000 insurance claim, while those hospitalized will receive P50,000 each provided they were listed in their boats’ passenger manifestoes.
On Monday, the Philippine Coast Guard’s central office confirmed it had deployed maritime investigators to Iloilo City and Guimaras to probe Saturday’s incident.
One question probers want to find an answer is: “Two passenger boats already capsized in the rough Iloilo Strait earlier but why was a third one still allowed to proceed on its journey?”
Past noon on Saturday, M/B Chi Chi and M/B Keshia, both bound for Guimaras from Iloilo City, were hit by a squall or a sudden gust of violent winds and rain. They capsized.
At around 4 p.m. Iloilo City-bound M/B Jenny Vince from Guimaras was hit by another squall and also capsized.
The three boats had a total of 86 passengers but only 75 were recorded in their manifestos./PN
