WE ARE SAD of the tragic accident at the Iloilo Strait on Aug. 3, 2019. Thirty-one lives were lost.
This narrow water body between Iloilo and the island province of Guimaras – which became politically independent from Iloilo – in 1992 – still uses the primitive pumpboat as regular mode of transport.
There were three passenger pumpboats involved in the accident, two of them travelling from Iloilo to Jordan while the third one was from Buenavista to Iloilo.
The “pumpboat” is a wooden vessel with outriggers of lumber and bamboo floaters on both sides but motorized and this has been the common transport used for decades to cross the narrow strait for some 15 minutes.
We are quite familiar with the sea routes because we have regularly taken the pumpboat ourselves when we were actively engaged in evangelization work for Couples for Christ in Guimaras for 12 years from 1992 to 2005.
When friends asked, we jokingly told them that we work “overseas” because we cross the sea every weekend. Allow us to tell you our own experience in crossing the rough strait at one time.
It was a Saturday afternoon when we were returning to Iloilo from Guimaras via Jordan. There was news of a tropical depression and the sea was rough. The last trip from Jordan to Iloilo by pumpboat had left port.
A young priest, Fr. Tim, also missed the boat. So we decided to take a tricycle to Buenavista town in the north as the wharf there was better sheltered from the open sea.
We reached Buenavista wharf at 7 p.m. and there was no regular trip anymore. Fortunately, after much waiting and praying, at 9 p.m. a pumpboat arrived from Iloilo to discharge passengers. We immediately negotiated for it to take us back to Iloilo.
When we came to terms, Fr. Tim exclaimed, “Praise the Lord!” At the same time he threw to the sea an empty plastic container that he was carrying all along.
“I have a confession to make,” he told us as we were walking down the plank to board the boat. “It was my fault that we missed the pumpboat at Jordan and we were made to wait very long for another one,” Fr. Tim revealed.
“Actually,” he continued, “I was at the wharf in Jordan much earlier for the last trip. However, upon seeing that the sea was rough, I went back to our house to get that empty plastic container to provide me a life saver, just in case. I then missed the boat in Jordan when I came back to the port. I am ashamed of this. The Lord has taught me a lesson!” (N.B. – This is a true story of a new priest from Guimaras who was going to his first assignment as assistant parish priest in a town northwest of Iloilo City. We withheld his true name as he seemed to be embarrassed of the incident that doubted his faith in the Lord.)
Now, there is a proposed Panay-Guimaras-Negros Bridges but they are still in the planning stage. While we think that it will be better to replace the decades-old pumpboat transport with a more modern ferry boat for Guimaras Strait, there should a be a phaseout program that should protect the personnel and crew of the pumpboats who would lose their jobs.
With passenger safety in mind and the increased passenger traffic that we see daily crossing the Guimaras Strait between Iloilo, we believe that a ferry boat will now be viable to operate but a phase-out program must be adopted to protect the hundreds of Guimarasnons that are involved in the pumpboat transport service.
What will happen to the pumpboats afterwards? It is possible for them to shift to the transport cargo of general merchandise and/or agricultural products between Iloilo and Guimaras while the ferry boat shall be strictly for passengers only.
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IDIOMS FOR THE ENLIGHTENED MIND
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