SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The completion of a commercial passenger-cargo vessel’s maiden voyage has paved the way for the resumption of the Antique province to Cuyo, Palawan route.
M/V Maria Estrella del Mar started its voyage from its home port in Iloilo City on June 26 and passed by this capital town on June 27 before proceeding to Cuyo town in Palawan province.
“The vessel arrived safely (on June 29) in Cuyo, Palawan,” said Jose Edison Tondares, board secretary of Maria Estrella del Mar Shipping, Inc., which operates the vessel and is a subsidiary of Saint Anthony’s College (SAC).
He said they are hoping the revision of the Iloilo-Antique-Palawan maritime route can boost trade and tourism in these areas.
The vessel berths at the Milagrosa-J Shipping Port at Lapuz, La Paz, Iloilo City, departs Monday at 7 p.m. and arrives in Antique at 6 a.m. the next day.
It leaves this town for Cuyo, Palawan, at 9 p.m. on Wednesday and arrives the next day at 6 a.m.
From Cuyo, it travels directly to Iloilo City at 6 p.m. on Friday and arrives the following day at 8 a.m.
The maritime route is also expected to “help ease the damaging stress brought upon by the heavy trucking on the mountain highway between Antique and Iloilo,” Tondares said.
The vessel Romblon Bay used to transport passengers from Metro Manila to Antique to Cuyo but stopped in the 1980s for lack of passengers when roll-on roll-off trips started to operate from Metro Manila directly to Palawan. (PNA)/PN
