Commentary by Tessa R. Salazar
There’s no question that flying is the ultimate way to travel, if you’re going for convenience and efficiency. When you count your time by the seconds or minutes, then boarding a plane for long-distance travel is a no-brainer.
But if you have time to spare, then going on a road trip on your car and hopping aboard a roll-on roll-off (RoRo) ferry for inter-island travel has its inherent earthly charms that you simply can’t achieve if you’re thousands of feet up in the clouds.
I was reminded again of this when I recently went on a land tour from Manila to the island-province of Mindoro a few days ago.
I’m no stranger to inter-island travel via the Philippine Nautical Highway—a system of roads and ports developed by the government to connect the major islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. I’ve gone to Boracay a number of times using just my car. In 2015, I and a co-driver set out on the ultimate road trip by driving from Luzon to Mindanao and back via the eastern-western nautical highway loop. The entire journey ran over 3,000 km, and took all of 11 days, including a 3-day stay in Cagayan de Oro. This trip involved seven RoRo transfers, lots of waiting at the ports, and numerous priceless moments for rest stops and photo ops. The roads were generally well-paved, the provincial drive was relatively stress-free, and the ferrying system at the time was already quite efficient, but still involved some paperwork, and we had to pass through quite a few office windows to settle this or that at each port (The nautical highway system was inaugurated to the public in 2003, and was then called the Strong Republic Nautical Highway).
But in my most recent RoRo trip to Mindoro on April 8, things had changed quite radically, and for the better, if I may say so—at least for the Batangas-Mindoro stage of the nautical highway.
The occasion was Toyota Motor Philippines’ on-site turnover of a Toyota Tamaraw utility van to the Bantay Tamaraw rangers in Mounts Iglit-Baco Natural Park (MIBNP) in Occidental Mindoro. I accompanied representatives from TMP on their way from Manila to the site. I drove a Toyota Fortuner on loan from the automaker’s Kinto One leasing facility of Toyota Mobility Solutions.
From our arrival at Batangas Port, to the moment our vehicles were secured inside the Montenegro Lines RoRo ferry bound for Abra De Ilog, took not more than 15 minutes. We didn’t even have to get down from our vehicles, unlike before when one of us had to go down and walk to the windows inside a building in the port to process the vehicles’ papers (check and verify the OR and CR) and pay this and that—all of which took at least 30 minutes. At both the Batangas and Calapan ports, the booking and payment processes were streamlined.
So, the hassles of booking and payment have been for the most part eliminated, allowing ourselves to enjoy more the view of the Verde Island Passage and the calm summer seas. The crossing took no more than two hours. And after disembarking at Abra De Ilog, our convoy went straightaway to our intended destinations for the vehicle turnover: A courtesy call to the PENRO office in Mamburao, a trip to the Carindan station to pick up some of the Bantay Tamaraw rangers on their way to the jump-off point of their forest patrols, and then onwards to the MIBNP-PAMO office for the on-site Toyota Tamaraw turnover, and finally to the Tamaraw Conservation Program office in San Jose for the official turnover of Bantay Tamaraw survival kits to the forest rangers.
Before returning back to Manila, we made a quick tour of the island province’s other side—Oriental Mindoro—to pay a visit to the province’s one and only Toyota dealership Toyota Calapan (which is arguably the brand’s biggest dealership in the country in terms of land area), and had a quick chat with the general manager and the vehicle sales manager, as well as a Next-Gen Tamaraw owner, a calamansi farmer.
By late afternoon of April 10, we were at the Starlite ticketing office in Calapan booking a RoRo back to Batangas. Again, the process took no more than 15 minutes. After paying for the passenger and vehicle tickets, it only took just one more stop, along the main entrance of Calapan port, to pay the port fees, and then we were in line for boarding. No red tape. No delays.
The sun was setting as the RoRo sailed past Verde Islands, like it did hundreds of times before. Seeing sunsets aboard a ship at sea hits different. Time slows down. You get to remember what and who you’ve lost, and take stock of what and who you still have with you. Like the RoRo, we’re all in transit in this life. “Waves crash, the sun rests, and peace prevails.” Whoever uttered this line must have been on a vessel at sea.