Samar mayor seeks help for stranded passengers

Tacloban City — A Northern Samar mayor has sought the help of government agencies in providing meals to passengers stranded at the seaport in his town when storms occur.

Mayor Rod Laurean Suan of Allen town said that while he would like to provide assistance to the stranded passengers, their limited budget was also affected.

“That is why, I would like to propose that a certain mechanism or formula would be drawn by various government agencies to help us out whenever there would be people stranded at our seaport,” Suan said on Friday.

The Allen seaport serves as the gateway of Eastern Visayas in going to Luzon.

About 2,150 passengers were recently stranded at the Allen seaport as ferry trips to Matnog, Sorsogon were canceled by the Coast Guard as a precautionary measure since Northern Samar was placed under storm signal no. 2 due to “Chedeng.”

According to Suan, the passengers, stranded for two days, were provided meals by Allen municipal government. The passengers were allowed to leave the port around 6:30 p.m. last Thursday.

By his own estimate, he said Allen spent over P100,000, which was taken from their P2.7-million calamity fund this year.

“We are a fifth class municipality. We cannot just spend our (limited) resources especially on people who are not my constituents,” Suan said.

He said that while he understood the plight of the stranded passengers, other government agencies also have to understand his position.

Suan suggested that bus companies should be prohibited from going to Allen port whenever a tropical storm was approaching Northern Samar and Bicol so that there would be no stranded passengers.

“We also have to look after the convenience of the passengers and their security, as well,” Suan added. /INQUIRER