400 passengers, crew of vessel rescued

ALMOST 400 passengers and crew of a Roll on-roll off (Roro) vessel owned by George and Peter Lines were stranded off coast of Cebu and Negros Island on Tuesday.

M/V Georich navigated by captain Crisologo Carollo was rescued by its sister Roro vessel M/V Zamboanga Ferry around 3 a.m. and tagged the stranded vessel back to Dumaguete Port.

All passengers and crews arrived safely at the Dumaguete pier around 7 a.m.

Carollo said the ship bound for Cebu City left the Dumaguete port around 11 p.m. But upon reaching the seas of Alcoy, Cebu, one of the ship’s engines automatically went off followed by other engine prompting him to call for rescue.

Dumaguete population officer Laome Quijote said she will claim damages for the delayed caused by the vessel’s failure to deliver its passengers to the port of destination.

She blamed the ship captain and management for allowing the vessel to serve passengers despite of its engine condition.

The ship captain said he respects the rights and opinion of the passengers and he understood their feelings.

But he clarified that the ship’s engines were all in good condition when they left Dumaguete port.

A bus owned by Vallacar Transit was also hired to bring the stranded passengers to Cebu City, but the bus has the capacity of 60 persons. Many stranded passengers got angry and had their tickets refunded.