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Saturday, May 13, 2006
Typhoon 'Caloy' cancels local sea, air travels
By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan
DUE to the continuous downpour and poor visibility brought about by tropical storm "Caloy," sea travel from Bacolod to Iloilo and Manila to Bacolod and vice versa were cancelled.
Local flights from Manila to Bacolod Friday morning were also diverted to Cebu, and all afternoon flights were cancelled.
Negros Navigation Co. (NN) cancelled its Manila-Iloilo-Bacolod trip with M/S St. Joseph the Worker that was supposed to depart from the North Harbor in Manila 4 p.m. Friday.
Aboitiz Transport Services, operator of SuperFerry, on the other hand, said it has not cancelled but only delayed the departure and arrival of their vessels in almost all of their ports of destination.
NN-Bacolod's branch manager Grace Golez said they didn't have any choice but to cancel the Manila-Iloilo-Bacolod trip because of the risks involved.
This as Caloy was forecasted to be moving from the Visayas region to the Manila area.
Passengers of the St. Joseph the Worker who were supposed to leave Saturday will be transferred to the St. Peter The Apostle, which is expected to depart from Manila going to Iloilo and Bacolod on Saturday, 2 p.m.
The vessel departed from Banago wharf in Bacolod past 3 p.m. Saturday and is now on its way to Manila.
St. Joseph The Worker, meanwhile, is set to proceed to the Pasacao Port in Naga City Sunday to fetch the athletes from Visayas and Mindanao that participated in the recently concluded Palarong Pambansa in Naga.
As to the SuperFerry lines, SuperFerry 5 from Manila to Bacolod, which departed from the North Harbor at 6:45 p.m. last Thursday, arrived at the Bredco Port past 5 p.m. Friday.
For the Bacolod-Iloilo routes and vice versa, all four ferry companies -- Weesam, Ocean Jet, Blue Sky, and SeaJet -- cancelled their trips from 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday.
The cancellation was instructed by the Philippine Coast Guard-Bacolod, after Negros Occidental was included as among the areas placed under storm signal 1.
As a result, more than 3,000 passengers were reportedly stranded.
Frank Carbon, Weesam proprietor, said their company lost approximately P600,000 due to the cancellations.
At Ocean Jet, Lecil Porol said, "We also incurred losses of about P300,000 in just one day."
The latest advisory for the Bacolod-Iloilo-Bacolod sea trips will be known at 6 a.m. Saturday.
Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines Flight from Manila to Bacolod scheduled to leave at 11 a.m. Friday was also diverted to Mactan International Airport in Mactan, Cebu.
PAL's afternoon's flights from Manila to Bacolod -- the 4:15 p.m. and 6:10 p.m. flights, were also cancelled.
Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines also cancelled their Manila-Bacolod flights.
On the other hand, Ceres Liners also suspended its Bacolod-Cebu trip via San Carlos City Friday.
(May 13, 2006 issue)
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