The Philippine Coast Guard reported that it tracked more than 32,000 passengers through the country’s ports early Friday, capturing the early influx in sea travel with five days left before Christmas.
The PCG’s first monitoring report for the holiday season saw 20,024 outbound and 12,596 inbound passengers between midnight and 6am of Friday.
Coast Guard operations deployed 2,747 frontline personnel areas across 16 PCG Districts to manage the movement of Filipinos through the country’s ports. The teams conducted safety inspections on 172 vessels and 73 motorbancas during the 6-hour period to ensure ships complied with maritime safety protocols.
From December 20 to January 3, all PCG districts, stations, and substations will be under heightened alert status, while Coast Guard personnel will also be on alert in areas where beaches and private resorts expect a surge in tourists, according to PCG chief Admiral Ronnie Gil Galvan.
The Philippine Ports Authority earlier said that it estimates more than 4.5 million passengers to travel by sea during the Christmas season.
Ensuring the safety of travelers, whether on air, land, or sea, is among the inherent challenges of governing an archipelago as extensive and populous as the Philippines. The sheer volume of passengers and cargo that goes through the transport system, especially during the holidays, makes the goal of ensuring everyone’s safety as they make their way to their destinations and loved ones particularly tough.
Many of the country’s worst transport-related disasters occur on sea, putting a lot of pressure on the Coast Guard and other maritime transport authorities as they ensure that none of those ever happen again, through constant vigilance and ensuring compliance with established safety regulations. As they gird their loins for the final but heaviest peak travel season of the year, let us wish them the best of luck in doing their jobs to the best of their abilities.*
