Tired but relieved, the passengers of the SuperFerry 9 finally disembarked at the BREDCO port in Bacolod City at 3:30 p.m. yesterday after a 26-and-a-half hour delay in their trip caused by steering problems.

About 391 of the 1,300 passengers on board the SuperFerry 9 from Manila disembarked in Bacolod City, while the rest transferred to the SuperFerry 2 to proceed to Iligan and Ozamis.

We are very tired especially because we were in a hurry to get home, Jocelleyn Billerta, one of the passengers said.

Abe Siason of Bago City said the delay was okay as problems do happen.

Manila businessman Bobby Sison, who was coming to Bacolod on business, said the trip was very long, and it was inconvenient but there was nothing they could do about it, that is how life is. He said they slept and watched TV during the long wait. "I just told them (the other passengers) to say thank you that we did not sink," he said.

Johnny Caroll, a Korean-American married to a woman from Escalante City, said "The trip was tiring but the service was very good, they took care of us."

"People were very calm, it looked like everybody was on vacation. We were in a cabin and we saw our boat going toward an island, it looked like it lost rudder control so it started drifting," Caroll said.

"SuperFerry 2 arrived, and at 11 p.m. Monday, it started towing our boat all throughout the night and as we approached Bacolod the tugboats took over," he said.

But one male passenger, who was among the first to disembark was heard shouting that he would never ride on a SuperFerry vessel again. The SuperFerry 9, which was originally scheduled to arrive in Bacolod at 1 p.m. Monday, developed steering problems near Balbagon Island in the northeastern part of Panay at 10:15 a.m. Monday and the SuperFerry 2 was called in to tow it to Bacolod.

Relatives waiting at the BREDCO port finally saw the vessels approaching Bacolod at 3 p.m. yesterday. Arelette Capistrano, SuperFerry passage manager for Western Visayas, said all of the SuperFerry 9 passengers were well taken care of and were provided free passage to any point in Negros Occidental. This is a regular added service SuperFerry is now providing, she said.* CPG

back to top