Tourists with night flights urged to leave early

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) urged both foreign and local tourists who have night time flights to check out early.

This after the PCG imposed a permanent policy that wooden hull boats were only allowed to sail from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Because of this, only eight large boats are available to sail on those hours.

The limited availability of the boats makes the long queues of passengers going to and from Boracay at night.

In a copy of the memorandum, Lieutenant Commander Marlower Acevedo, PCG-Aklan station commander, said that they have received a memorandum from the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) to implement such policy.

“In order to uphold the passenger safety among passenger motorbancas and comply with existing Marina regulations, operation of motorbancas with night-time navigation is hereby suspended. The operation of passenger motorbancas will be from sunrise to sunset only,” he said.

The new policy developed in relation to the Guimaras sea tragedy last August which killed several people.