EDITORIAL - From Ormoc to Cebu doesn't take you to Talisay

In all the news reports about the running aground last Thursday night of the fastcraft Weesam Express 7 at Lauis Ledge off  Talisay City, no explanation whatsoever was made of the fact that when it met the accident, the vessel was "so far from home," so to speak.

When it met the accident, the Weesam Express 7 was plying the Ormoc-Cebu route. The published schedule of departure for that particular trip was 1:30 p.m. from Ormoc but according to some passengers, bad weather delayed the departure and the vessel managed to leave Ormoc only after 3 p.m.

The trip normally takes a little over two hours, so the vessel should have arrived in Cebu past 5 p.m. But because of bad weather, it is understandable for the trip to take longer than usual, and accounts bear that out. The fastcraft met the accident in Cebu past nightfall, with the Coast Guard receiving the call past 6 p.m.

What is perplexing is why the vessel met the accident in Lauis Ledge off Talisay City when that area is way past Cebu City and the Port of Cebu, the vessel's port of call. In fact the vessel's terminal and berthing area is at Pier 4, well within the Mactan Channel. Lauis Ledge is already out of the channel to the south.

At first it was thought that the Weesam Express 7 had come from Tagbilaran. Had it come from that Bohol city, then the site of the accident would not have come as a surprise as that route would have taken the vessel over the accident-prone ledge. The ledge is the single biggest threat coming to port from the south.

But the Cebu-Ormoc-Cebu route follows a northeastern track. Coming to port from Ormoc, all fastcraft would have to pass through the Mactan Channel from its northern entrance, come under the two bridges to Mactan, and then home to the Port of Cebu. Talisay City is still several kilometers beyond this point.

So what happened? Why did the vessel overshoot and fail to dock at its destination? Did it suffer some form of mechanical malfunction? Or was it simply overwhelmed by the bad weather? But it could not have been overwhelmed by bad weather if it was already inside the Mactan Channel and the safety of the Cebu harbor.

According to accounts of some passengers, they felt relieved as they neared Cebu because the weather appeared to let up. Perhaps this was because they were already inside the harbor. An investigation is now underway and one thing to find out is why, from Ormoc, it went past Cebu City and reached Talisay.