TACLOBAN CITY — The launching of a new passenger vessel that will sail the Tacloban-Cebu route went on a sour start after the shipping company barred the local media from covering its inauguration at the Tacloban Port Area on Tuesday.

MV Claudine Stars, managed by Star Philippines Shipping Lines Inc., a sister company of Roble Shipping, is set to sail its maiden voyage from Tacloban to Cebu on Wednesday, 11, September.

Different local media organizations that went to cover the inauguration on Tuesday morning were barred by security guards of Philippine Ports Authority (ppa) from entering the port area.

A PPA official later said that they are only following orders of Roble Shipping to limit the people allowed to attend the inauguration based on the list that the shipping company provided them.

“The order is not to allow any member of the local media to cover the inauguration. This may be painful to us being your friend but we have to accede to their request,” the port official said.

Since Roble Shipping announced to the public that it is set to sail the Tacloban-Cebu route last month, various media outlets have received a barrage of queries from the public —from schedules, fare, and to sea worthiness of the vessel.

Geron Ponferrada, a media consultant of the Tacloban City government, said the riding public needs to know the basic information such as where to board the boat, where the waiting area is and assure the safety of its passengers.

“Do they have enough life jackets and lifeboats in case of an emergency? These are some of the questions that the management needs to inform the public,” Ponferrada said.

Most of the queries from the public are concerning its sea worthiness and the safety of the public as the sea tragedy of Dona Paz in 20 December 1987 that killed over 4,000 passengers has repeatedly cropped up.

“There were lessons learned from the tragedy. The Doña Paz incident was very tragic to us because almost everybody had a friend or relative who died in it,” says one school teacher.

Claudine Star, also known as Tanegashima No. 2, was built in 1974 by Honda Heavy Industries in Saiki, Japan.

The passenger/Ro-Ro vessel has an overall length of 74.3 meters, a breadth of 12.2 meters and a depth of 7.2 meters.

In 1993, George and Peter Lines acquired it and renamed it as M/V Zamboanga Ferry that served the company’s Cebu-Dapitan-Zamboanga and v.v. route. In 2019, M/V Zamboanga Ferry was sold to Joy Roble of Roble Shipping Inc via Sunline Shipping Lines