DOTr Sec Tugade leads turn-over 

Of new PTB in Port of Tagbilaran

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, April 14 (PIA) – In still another bid to make Bohol even more globally competitive, especially to international travelers visiting its tourism destinations, the Department of Transportation, through the Philippine Ports Authority, turned over to Bohol a new two-storey Passenger Terminal Building (PTB II), which sits on a 1,843.37-sqm of the lot where the old PTB was before the 2013 earthquake rendered it unsafe.

The new PTB II expands the passenger capacity of the port’s existing PTB 1 which can comfortably sit only 497 passengers.

Now with the new two storey building which can also comfortably 613 more passengers, the Port of Tagbilaran can accommodate a total of over a thousand passengers.

The problem with overloaded and jam-packed PTB was so much highlighted as the Port of Tagbilaran, in the pre-COVID days, schedules at least two fast craft trips per hour, each vessel accommodating over 300 passengers.

With the PTB I capacity only at little less than 500, waiting passengers have to stand at the terminal lobby and await for their boarding calls.

Not anymore.

This is the hallmark infrastructure project for the people of Bohol, after the Port of Tagbilaran which was vastly devastated by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in 2013, is now officially open.

And with the completion of the new PTB, the Port of Tagbiliran is now a beacon of change, as Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Arthur Tugade and Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) General Manager Jay Santiago spared no time to improve this much-needed port transport infrastructure, since the Duterte Administration came in 2016, says a press statement from the DOTr.

The formal opening was marked by the formal inauguration of the facility with the unveiling of the marker of the PTB II, which heralds the start of its operations.

That same day, DOTr Secretary Tugade, PPA General Manager Daniel Jay Santiago, House Transportation Committee Chair Edgar Sarmiento, PPA Tagbilaran Engr. James Gantalao and Gov Arthur Yap also visited and inspected the Tagbilaran Office of the land Transportation Office, the soon to be completed Port of Maribojoc and the improved Port of Catagbacan in Loon.

These major port projects form part of the 22 big-ticket port infrastructure projects of the DOTr and the PPA in the province of Bohol.

The DOTr in fact, promised to end the P2.3 billion projects it has the set to leave with substantial completion when President Rodrigo Duterte administration bows out of term in June of 2022.

And by then, if the situations allow, Bohol would have already prepared its key port infrastructure facilities at the advent of new and now-normal travel in the world. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

MORE SEATS. With the new Passenger Terminal Building opened at the Port of Tagbilaran City, some 600 plus seats add up to the 596 seats of the old terminal. At two 300 seater fast crafts leaving every hour, the PTB could hardly accommodate passengers in lounges before. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)

THE NEW 2 STOREY PTB. Opened to further serve local and international travelers in comfort, DOTR and the PPA implemented the new additional PTB in Tagbilaran to cater to the ever increasing passenger traffic in the port. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol)