‘Soft start’ for fast craft trips, Marina says

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

The economic viability of fast craft trips between the cities of Iloilo and Bacolod remains under observation by the Maritime Industry Authority-Region (Marina)-6 regional director office.

In fact, Marina-6 chief Jose Venancio Vero said on Tuesday that they cannot yet give an assessment of sea trips which resumed on Oct 31, 2020.

According to Marina-6’s data, 192 passengers travelled from Iloilo City to Bacolod City, while 152 boarded the return trip on Friday.

On Nov. 1, only 84 travelled from Iloilo City, and 63 went to Bacolod.

The allowed capacity for ferry trips, due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is only 50 percent of a ferry’s maximum capacity.

The surge in COVID-19 cases in the two cities prompted Mayors Jerry Treñas of Iloilo City and Evelio Leonardia of Bacolod to suspend trips between the two cities a few months ago.

To date, only two fast craft companies have restarted operation since the resumption.

Vero told Bombo Radyo Iloilo that companies broached raising their fares, but no petition had been filed with Marina yet.

He said that they cannot give a full assessment yet on the resumption of trips.

“Around these times, during a holiday, there would be many passengers. When we base it on last year’s figures, it hasn’t event reached 25 percent. We cannot have an assessment yet. We do not know the pattern,” he added.

Vero said the rule of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) prohibiting visiting cemeteries from Oct. 29 to Nov. 4 may have been one of the reasons for the low passenger turnout.

“Especially now, that during this holiday season people weren’t allowed to go to the cemeteries, and people felt lazy to go to their homes. We will see in the coming days, when office resumes, of what would be the movement of passengers,” he said.

Vero also revealed that one of the companies, SuperCat, is still doubtful on resuming trips due to the low volume of passengers.

“SuperCat cancelled [their resumption] because their crew was not able get documents. They weren’t able to buy tickets in Cebu going back here. Maybe [they’ll inform by] Wednesday, we’ll see. But I was able to talk to them, and they said they’ll still have to check because of the low number when we reopened. If there would be the three of them operating, they might all have losses,” Vero said.