Tacloban: The government-sponsored roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) vessel trips have officially reached their 1,000th mark, facilitating the transport of essential goods between this city and Basey, Samar amid the San Juanico Bridge crisis. The program has already served 1,075 cargo trucks and fuel tankers across the Tacloban-Amandayehan-Basey corridor since its launch on June 18.

According to Philippines News Agency, Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Eastern Visayas Regional Director Lord Byron Torrecarion highlighted the program's achievements on Friday. "From transporting perishable and essential commodities, fuel, and construction materials to facilitating the movement of government assets, this effort plays a crucial role in ensuring that public services remain uninterrupted and government projects continue, especially the vital repairs of the San Juanico Bridge," Torrecarion said in a phone interview.

Covered by the program are cargo trucks and delivery vehicles officially transporting essential and perishable goods such as food, medicine, water, animal feed, and fuel. Government and humanitarian vehicles on official duty carrying relief goods or logistical support for disaster response operations are also included.

Torrecarion mentioned that they have contracted the landing craft tank LCT Edison to make 633 trips crossing the San Juanico Strait, which separates Tacloban City and Amandayehan village in Basey, Samar. The Libreng Sakay program will continue to operate day and night to help lessen the burden on supply chain partners and ensure the uninterrupted delivery of basic services to communities.

The Amandayehan-Tacloban route is a new shipping lane that complements existing ones, significantly reducing travel time to 15 to 20 minutes, excluding loading and unloading. This is a stark contrast to the 13-hour Calbayog-Ormoc route.