ILOILO City – All passengers of ships or boats with open deckhouses are required to wear lifejackets at all times, according to the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA).
It issued the clarification in the wake of the capsizing of three motorboats plying the Iloilo-Guimaras route on Saturday. Thirty-one persons died.
The safety measure is included in the agency’s decade-old Memorandum Circular No. 08 or the “Rules to Implement Safety Measures for Passenger Ships with Open Deckhouse” issued in 2008 yet.
A deckhouse is a ship cabin that protrudes above the level of a ship’s deck.
All passengers who disobey the policy will be required to disembark.
A source told Panay News some passengers of Iloilo-Guimaras motorboats are reluctant to wear lifejackets because these are smelly and unclear.
On Monday, MARINA suspended the operation of all passenger wooden-hulled motorboats plying the Iloilo-Guimaras route to give way to a thorough safety standards evaluation.
“All sea passengers of ships with open deckhouses shall be required to wear lifejackets from the time of departure and during the entire voyage, except in floating restaurants and in ships used in river crossings, in which case lifejackets shall be placed in an easily accessible location,” MARINA stressed in a statement.
The memo also requires all ships to establish a public address system, disseminate safety instructions in the local dialect, Filipino and English, and ensure that the number of lifejackets are equal to the total number of passengers and crew.
Department of Transportation (DOTr) secretary Arthur Tugade and other government officials on Wednesday were in Iloilo to inspect various transportation facilities and projects in the province.
Tugade also checked on the status of sea commuters, with one passenger at the Iloilo Fastcraft Terminal saying they now prefer to pay P35 for passage in a roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) vessel because it is safer than paying P15 for wooden-hulled bancas.
Following the grounding of motorboats, MARINA ordered four private shipping companies to send vessels that would serve the Iloilo-Guimaras route.
Aside from the four additional vessels, MARINA also coordinated with the Philippine Navy through the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Central Command to deploy BRP Ivatan to Guimaras and help ferry passengers.
In a directive pursuant to Section 12 of Presidential Decree 474 issued on Aug. 5, two ro-ro vessels from Montenegro Shipping Lines Inc. and Tri-Star Megalink Corp., and two fastcraft vessels from Ocean Fast Ferries, Inc. and 2GO Group, Inc. were ordered by MARINA to augment the services in the Iloilo-Guimaras route.
Earlier, FF Cruz Shipping Corp. was instructed to increase its trips from one to two ro-ro round trips per hour in the said route. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
