PARLEY

MV Trans Asia-China
En route CDO-Cebu
RATING: Avoid like the plague

If there is one floating junk in the Philippine seas as of the moment, it's MV Trans Asia-China. In a recent trip to Cagayan de Oro, our ship almost hit a jetty, broke its steering gear, turned back towards Cebu, then turned back and crawled towards CDO again. The paddling speed forced many passengers including me to charge the captain's cabin, for a mutiny of sorts, and force him to bring back the ship to Cebu. Arriving back in Cebu at 1 a.m. (the ship still sailed at 2 a.m.) , I boarded Super Ferry 17 at 9 a.m., only to over take Trans Asia-China in the middle of the sea at around noon.

Photo: the captain is the guy at the top left while his chief engineer is at top right.