Sorsogon town port bottleneck starts to ease

LEGAZPI CITY—A landing craft tank (LCT) was finally sent to the port of Matnog in Sorsogon province to unclog the port of at least 500 Visayas-bound cargo trucks waiting for their turn to load onto roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) vessels for the last two weeks, a Bicol Region police official said.

Chief Supt. Victor Deona, Bicol police chief, said in a phone interview that as of 11 a.m. on Saturday, the number of cargo trucks stranded at the port had been reduced to 366, or by nearly one-third, from the 580 since May 8 with the arrival of LCT 388 on Friday.

Until the arrival of the LCT, the stranded trucks formed a queue that stretched up to 4 kilometers outside of the Matnog port alone, and a kilometer long along the Maharlika Highway in the towns of Matnog, Irosin, Juban, Casiguran and in Sorsogon City.

Deona said the LCT, which could carry up to 22 cargo trucks, would be used to exclusively ferry the stranded cargo trucks from Matnog port to Allen port in Northern Samar province.

Carol Mendizabal, division manager of the Philippine Port Authority in Bicol, said in a text message that the first batch of cargo trucks was transported from Matnog to Allen via LCT 388 at 12:40 a.m.

It will continue to do so until the port is cleared of all stranded vehicles.

Mendizabal said they asked the Maritime Industry Authority to deploy four LCTs to normalize operations but only two could be provided by private operators.

The LCT plying the Matnog-Allen port came from Cebu and is owned by Cebu Charterer.