Department of Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade tests the water jeepney that shuttles between Cavite City and Manila.

The daily ordeal of commuters of spending hours being stuck on the road to make it to their place of work in Manila is expected to be greatly relieved with the Department of Transportation’s (DoTr) launch yesterday of the so-called water jeepney that would be offered for free during the entire month.

During the inaugural ceremony in Cavite City, DoTr Secretary Arthur Tugade said the ferry service will start sailing from the Cavite City Port Terminal to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Complex in Pasay City and to the Liwasang Bonifacio Terminal (Plaza Lawton) in Manila and vice versa.

The ferry service will be free of charge until 9 January next year that operators Shogun Ships Co. Inc. and Seaborne Shipping Company Inc. hopes would be a strategy to perk up interest for water travel among commuters.

Tugade estimated the travel time from Cavite City Port Terminal to Liwasang Bonifacio Terminal at 40 to 45 minutes, while the trip between Cavite City Port Terminal and CCP complex terminal is only around 15 minutes.

“Imagine how much you will be saving in terms of travel time,” the DoTr chief added during the launch.

“Our desire in reviving the ferry operation is to improve commuters’ experience. I talked to Shogun and Seaborne and told them I want this project as a Christmas gift to Filipinos of President Rodrigo Duterte. It should initially be for free until the end of the holiday season,” Tugade said.

“We want to revive the ferry operation in Cavite, which was not operational for quite some time. This is why we used our capacity to bring back the ferry’s glory,” he indicated.

Following the launch, the ferry service kicked off its operations with an inaugural voyage from the Cavite City Port Terminal to the Liwasang Bonifacio Terminal (Lawton) in Manila.

Two vessels will start the trial run, with two to three more to be added next month. Through the ferry service, MV Island Sabtang from Shogun Ships Co. Inc. can accommodate 57 passengers, while MB Seaborne Mercury can accommodate 27 passengers.

The fares for the ferry are still under negotiation as Tugade vowed to push for lower rates.

For his part, Cavite City Mayor Bernardo Paredes lauded the DoTr and its attached agencies under the maritime sector for initiating the ferry service in a bid to help ease road traffic to and from Metro Manila.

Paredes said the new boat services will cushion the worsening traffic situation in Metro Manila.

According to the DoTr, the Cavite-Manila Ferry Boat Service is also an offshoot of the “water jeepney” developed in Cebu and was announced during the operational dry run of the Sangley Airport in Cavite.

“We want to revive the concept of the water jeepney in Cavite so that riders can have better options to reach Metro Manila. So that they can say, ‘Okay ka, Ferry ko, (You’re okay, my ferry)’” Tugade said. It was a quip that referenced a local television sitcom in the ’90s.