ILOILO CITY – – Boat trips between Iloilo City and the island province of Guimaras may be extended beyond 10 p.m during the Manggahan Festival slated May 11-22.
This after the provincial government of Guimaras requested from the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina-6) to allow motor bancas to continue operating beyond their 10:00 p.m regular trips, according to Juliette Nacion, Senior Maritime Industry Development Specialist.
Nacion said that they are still awaiting for the applications from the motor banca operators from the towns of Jordan and Buenavista because the “proper entity to request is the operators” and the request of the governor will just support it.
She added that they also want these operators to submit the list of identified boats that will travel during evening.
“Not all vessels will be allowed. Only those with night time operations and these vessels will undergo random inspection to check their lighting for sea worthiness,” she said.
Nacion said that their office will be issuing special permits if these boats will already be identified.
As of the moment, Nacion said that they have only issued special permits to guests who have earlier requested from their office to allow them to travel from different tourist destinations in Guimaras during the festival.
Aside from the motor bancas, Nacion said that they also received request for special permit to allow the roll-on roll-off vessels to extend their trips until 9:00 p.m.
Regular trips of Ro-Ro vessels is from 6:00 a.m until 6:00 p.m.( Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
