Leyte-bound ship conks out near Mactan bridge

The 87 passengers of a roll-on/roll-off (Ro/Ro) vessel arrived at least seven hours later than its scheduled arrival in a Leyte port after the ship experienced engine trouble near the Mandaue-Mactan bridge.

The MV Lady of Love, owned by Medallion Shipping Lines, was on its maiden voyage plying the Palompon-Cebu route when its engine conked out near the Cebu-Mactan bridge at  9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

It has a problem in the fuel line, said Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Station Commander Rodolfo Villajuan.

The problem caused the vessel to drift to the shorelines between the Mandaue-Mactan bridges.

Yesterday morning, tugboats towed the ship to deeper waters and was inspected by the Coast Guard and Maritime Industry (Marina) inspectors.

Villajuan said Marina inspectors declared it safe for navigation  and at past 8 a.m. yesterday was allowed to continue to its destination.

A Medallion Shipping official said the ship arrived at past 1 p.m. in Palompon, Leyte.

“Hindi na nag-transfer ang mga pasahero dun pa rin sila sumakay kasi tuloy na ang biyahe pagkatapos ng inspection kahapon (The passengers were not transferred after the ship was allowed to sail after the inspection),” he said.

The MV Lady of Love was acquired by Medallion Shipping from Moreta Shipping Lines.

According to Philippine Ship Spotter’s Society, the MV Lady of Love which was formerly MV Love-1 had a gross tonnage of 3,184 and had a  length of 88.26m.
It has a passenger capacity of 790 and was built in Kanda, Japan in 1979.