City’s cruise ferries, boats are “colorum”
UNKNOWN to the riding public, the now defunct River Cruise tourist ferries and all passengers boats plying the waters of Dagupan City have been operating without the required registration with the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina).
But that is about to change with better coordination between Marina and the city government which is planning to set up a new river cruise program.
Marina’s supervising industry development specialist Alfonso Rulloda, who was invited by Mayor Belen Fernandez to the weekly executive meeting with department heads last week, said the national agency has no record of any registration of a single boat in the city.
Assured by the cooperation from the city government, Rulloda said his agency will assist in legalizing the operations of passenger boats in Dagupan.
He said passenger boats in Alaminos City are likewise unregistered.
A week-long mobile registration will be set by Marina in Dagupan this month for the licensing of all boats from three gross tons and insurance coverage from a registered company.
Boat owners will only pay a one-time charge of P1,000, excluding the insurance, a special fee under ongoing pro-poor registration program until December this year.
RIVER CRUISE
Meanwhile, Fernandez announced the city’s plan to restore the river ferry cruise for tourists soon with new features to make it a popular tourist destination in the province.
The three cruise boats under Lim were suddenly pulled out by personnel of the Magic Group owned by former Mayor Benjamin Lim in June after he was incapacitated and Fernandez was the acting-mayor.
Lim’s company asserted that the ferryboats are owned by Lim, but this claim has yet to be verified by the city government that spent P11 million for the project.
The controversial river cruise, started by Lim, was funded by the city government without the benefit of public bidding as required by law, and was built without any prior information to the city government on the detailed plans for the project.
The funds were found to have been surreptitiously withdrawn from the city coffers without the benefit of an ordinance.
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