EDITORIAL — Cruise chaos

Filipinos are used to the litany of complaints aired by travelers about the Philippines’ main gateway, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Even before the deficiencies at the NAIA can be fully addressed, however, attention has now been drawn to the state of services at the country’s seaports.

With 7,641 islands, the Philippines is reputed to have the fifth most extensive coastline in the world. Compared with its neighbors, however, the country has been late in developing its sea cruise tourism potential, with many ports lacking the facilities needed in international cruise destinations.

In February this year, the Department of Tourism expressed hopes of turning the country into a regional cruise center in Asia. A cruise traveler recently provided a glimpse into the quality of cruise tourism services, right in the country’s busiest international seaport, the Manila South Harbor.

The review was made by a passenger on the cruise ship Norwegian Jewel, which docked at Pier 15 in Manila on Nov. 30 for the final leg of a 10-day Southeast Asian tour that included Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia. On Dec. 9, the passenger who identified himself as Nelson Terible posted a review describing their disembarkation experience in Manila as “cruise chaos.”

There was an acute lack of port personnel to assist the passengers, many of them elderly, with their luggage, which had to be brought out of the ship through a “broken and uneven” narrow walkway where the motor fans of air-conditioning units blew air at certain spots, Terible posted. Port employees demanded declaration forms, ignoring the passengers’ protests that the documents had already been submitted at their port of entry in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Terible complained.

It took the passengers two hours of what Terible described as a “sad, pitiful, traumatic” experience to clear the port, where there were also “unscrupulous individuals trying to make a deal with some foreigners.” The passengers then had to wait for their ride in an open parking lot under the noonday sun. At least the cruise travelers had “a pleasant experience” in Palawan and their other stop in the Philippines, Boracay.

The Philippine Ports Authority has pinned the blame for the “cruise chaos” in Manila on Asian Terminals Inc. and Ben Line Agencies, for providing only 20 porters to assist 2,353 disembarking and 2,505 embarking passengers. The PPA has described the incident as an “isolated case.”

There is also the possibility, however, that other cruise travelers have experienced the same chaos in the past, but did not write about it. The Philippines is already a tourism laggard in the region. The last thing it needs is bad reviews for its effort to promote cruise tourism.