CPA Installs PhP50.7-M Buoys at Mactan-Cebu Channel

The Cebu Port Authority (CPA) has installed 10 buoys in the Mactan-Cebu Channel to avoid a repetition of the M/V Sulpicio Siete and M/V St. Thomas Aquinas collision that killed more than 100 people two years ago.

“This is the first time CPA has procured such buoys in coordination with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), costing around PhP50.7 million,” said CPA General Manager Edmund Tan.

CPA Construction and Maintenance Division Manager Sofronio Magdadaro said the recently completed project covered both the north and south entrances of Cebu Channel.

The buoys have a five-ton concrete sinker, G.I. chains, accessories, automatic identification system (AIS), aid to navigation (AtoN), global position system (GPS) and a global system for mobile (GSM) technology.

Tan said the buoys are lateral-mark type used to mark the sides of well-defined navigable channels.

He sai they are positioned in accordance with a conventional direction of buoyage and indicate the port and starboard sides of the route to be followed.

The red buoys are on the right side while the green ones are on the left side.

Tan said all vessels going to the port should be in the right side where the red buoys are located while those going out of the Port of Cebu must be in the left side where the green buoys were installed.

After the collision of cargo vessel Sulpicio Siete and passenger ferry Thomas Aquinas in August 2013, the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI) created by PCG and chaired by Rear Admiral Luis Tuazon Jr. found out that there was no guide for vessels at Mactan-Cebu Channel leading to the ports in Cebu City.

The BMI recommended the installation of navigational buoys in the area to prevent similar accidents. (PNA) SCS/EB/RSM