CLOSE to 700,000 shipping passengers have already sailed for various parts of the archipelago as the Holy Week exodus continues on Wednesday.
Philippine Coast Guard Public Affairs Commander Armando Balilo said that the number of sea travelers has risen to 656,152 since the agency placed all units on heightened alert last week.
Balilo noted that most of the recorded travels are heading to the Visayas and Mindanao while they are expecting heavy traffic for interisland ships and roll-on-roll-off (RoRo) vessels until Thursday especially in the ports of Batangas and Calapan.
He added that since the beaches and resorts are the common places visited by the public during their Holy Week vacation, the Coast Guard would also monitor these areas to keep the swimmers and beach bums safe.
“Beginning Good Friday until Easter Sunday, we would also be focusing our attention on the beaches and resorts to prevent incidents of drowning,” Balilo said. (John Carlo Cahinhinan/Sunnex)