A passenger vessel from Cebu arrived three hours late at the port of Hilongos, Leyte Saturday evening due to big waves and rough seas caused by the southwest monsoon or ‘Habagat’ winds.
MV Beautiful Stars of Roble Shipping Lines left Pier 4 in Cebu City at 12 noon and was expected to arrive at Port of Hilongos at 5 p.m. on the same day.
Julius Maraya of the operations division of the Philippine Coast Guards (PCG) in Hilongos, said it took for MV Beautiful Stars five attempts before it could successfully dock at the port.
“There were no tugboats used when they docked. They waited for the rough waves to calm down,” Maraya told Cebu Daily News.
MV Beautiful Stars was able to dock before 8 p.m. Maraya said Cebu–Hilongos and Hilongos–Cebu are the regular routes of the passenger vessel.
PCG Cebu Station Commander Agapito Bibat identified the ship captain as Joel Moceno. He had 198 passengers on board when the vessel departed from Cebu.
Maraya also confirmed that two of the 198 passengers, a woman in her 50s and an 18-year old girl, fainted on board while the vessel tried to dock.
“Kinabahan po sila dahil sa lakas ng alon (They were very nervous because of the strong waves),” he added.
The two female passengers were brought to Leyte Baptist Hospital Inc., and the Hilongos Center Clinic.