Sea trips resume in Cebu as gale warning lifted

SEA trips for Bohol and other parts of Cebu and Central Visayas resumed at past 5 p.m. yesterday after the state weather bureau Pagasa lifted the gale warning over these areas.

A fast craft operator at Pier 1 in Cebu City immediately announced to passengers that their trips resumed at 5:30 and 6:45 pm.

A  gale warning remains in effect over the northern and eastern seaboards of Samar, the eastern seaboard of Southern Leyte and northern seaboards of Aklan and Capiz and some parts of Luzon.

Philippine Coast Guard-Cebu station commander Agapito Bibat said he immediately lifted the suspension of trips going to Bohol and the Hagnaya-Sta Fe Bantayan routes.

But he said he has yet to clear the trips for Southern Leyte and Ormoc as well as the Danao City-Camotes routes.

He said the ports of destination for southern Leyte routes are usually located in the western part of southern Leyte and not in the eastern seaboard.

But Bibat said he instructed his men to check first the sea condition in Camotes sea before allowing the resumption of sea trips to those areas.

Trips for Leyte will have to pass by near the Camotes sea.

Despite the lifting of the gale advisory the rains are expected to continue until next Sunday.

Dave Tumulak, head of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, they are monitoring upland barangays for any landslides.

Pagasa Visayas director Oscar Tabada said they recorded 9.4 mm of rainwater since Monday this week.

The rains have also caused some delegates to the International Eucharistic Congress to experience hypertension and colds.

The Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF) said so far there were no serious cases.