The Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) issued a show cause order against a shipping company, asking it to explain the alleged overloading of passengers of its Romblon-bound vessel on Sunday, April 13.
Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Vince Dizon ordered the investigation and sanctions against the company after the ship’s supposed departure from Batangas Port was flagged by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).
The vessel, operated by Montenegro Shipping Lines Inc., reportedly set sail despite selling tickets beyond its maximum capacity.
The incident left some passengers stranded at the port as they could not board the overloaded ship.
"Warning 'to sa mga shipping lines, huwag na huwag niyo nang gagawin 'yan kasi you will face the consequences," said Dizon.
(This is a warning to the shipping lines, don’t ever do that again because you will face the consequences.)
"Huwag kayong mang-abuso para lang kumita ng mas malaki. Hindi natin ito-tolerate 'yang ganyang pang-aabuso," he added.
(Don’t take advantage just to earn more. We will not tolerate that kind of abuse.)
Dizon has ordered the company to compensate the inconvenienced passengers.
Montenegro Shipping Lines has denied the allegation.
“We would like to inform you that all passengers who boarded our Batangas-Odiongan trip on April 13, 2025, were ticketed passengers,” the company said in a statement.
“We confirm that no ticketed passengers were left behind and there were no instances of overloading during the trip,” it added.
The DOTr earlier signed a joint memorandum circular with Marina, the PCG, and the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to curb the overloading scheme.
Under the circular, the PCG is tasked to strictly implement the weight limit of vessels based on boarding passengers and vehicles.
Meanwhile, Marina will impose the corresponding penalty on shipping companies found overloading passengers.
The PPA, which oversees the country’s public ports, expects over 1.73 million passengers for this year’s Holy Week. This is a 3.5-percent increase from the 1.67 million passengers recorded last year.