Some passengers at Batangas Port forced to take longer route amid fully booked trips

Some passengers at the Batangas Port will need to take the longer route to their destinations as several trips are now fully booked for the Holy Week.

In Dano Tingcungco’s Tuesday report on “24 Oras,” several passengers said they did not expect certain trips would be fully booked as early as Tuesdat since they usually secure a ticket around this time.

In a “24 Oras” report on Monday, trips to Caticlan, the entry point to Boracay Island, are fully booked until Wednesday, April 16, while trips from Batangas to Roxas via Sibuyan, Romblon are fully booked until Saturday, April 19.

However, there are still some chance passengers.

In light of the situation, some passengers said they would take a longer route by taking a ship to Calapan, Oriental Mindoro. From there they will ride a bus to the town of Roxas where they will then board a vessel to Caticlan.

A family was fortunate to secure a trip to Puerto Galera, where one of their members will celebrate his birthday at the popular beach destination.

The Batangas Port reiterated its call to passengers to secure their trips as early as they can in order for the management to know if additional ships are needed.

Among the contingency plans port officials could implement is to allow passengers to buy a P30 terminal fee so they could access the pre-departure lounge.

“Para makapasok sa pre-departure area na maluwag nakaupo, libre tubig, may charging. Inaadvise din namin sila na na kung group sila, na isa na lang ang pipila. The normal procedure kasi is vessel ticket muna,” Batangas Port manager Joselito Sinocruz said.

(They can enter the pre-departure area that is spacious, has free water, and has charging outlets. We advised passengers in a group to assign one person to buy their tickets. The normal procedure is to secure a ticket first, but we will allow them to buy the terminal fee even without the ticket.)

Based on its latest monitoring on Tuesday, the Batangas Port logged about 20,000 passengers who passed through the terminal, which is roughly the same number as in the past three days. —Mariel Celine Serquiña/RF, GMA Integrated News