FAST CAT SUPPORTS FARM TOURISM
ARCHIPELAGO Philippine Ferries Corp. (APFC), the shipping company that operates FastCat will open more routes to spur interisland farm trade and improve the distribution of goods in the Philippines.
Mary Ann Pastrana, APFC executive vice president said FastCat is expanding its routes to support farm tourism and develop market linkages of agricultural products.
“We are committed to bring our cargo ships closer to farms,” she said during the recent Juanderful Farm tour conference held at Nobu Hotel.
“We hope to develop strong interest and appreciation of agriculture and farming among tourists, policy makers and other stakeholders. We wish to create additional livelihood and employment opportunities in rural areas,” Pastrana said.
Pastrana was designated as the Municipal Tourism Council President of Bulalacao in Oriental Mindoro.
She owned the Victoria Nature Park, which produces organic stevia. The farm also has organic vegetable garden, orchard area, wild duck pond, fish pond and it has rice field technology demo.
FastCat and Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) have recently partnered to promote the farm learning sites in Oriental Mindoro. Inves- tors, farmers and the media toured the Gabutero Organic farm, Victoria Farm and By the Sea Hotels (BTS), owned by Pastrana; the Provincial Demo Farm and Infinity Farm.
“Our commitment is to pursue our dream of becoming a successful farm tourism business in Philippines,” said Pat Andrew Barrientos, Center
Director of Department of Agriculture (DA) Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) MiMaRoPa. Roland Punzalan, Bulalacao Municipal Tourism Officer said the municipality of Bulalacao has nine major islands, coves, falls and they promote awareness on the Mangyan culture. Punzalan said FastCat not only helped reduced travel time and transportation costs, but also promote domestic tourism. “The routes that will be opened via FastCat were Bulalacao to Coron, Coron to El Nido.
By land or private van, you can go to El Nido and Bataraza, Palawan. Then another FastCat trip from Bataraza to Kudat, Malaysia,” Punzalan said.
He said if you are going to Dakak, via Fastcat you’ll pass by Caticlan, Dumaguete going to Dakak.
Punzalan added that cruise ships that are coming to Puerto Princesa going to Boracay will stop - over in Bulalacao.
In an earlier interview, Christopher Pastrana, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FastCat said by the first half of 2019, they will be able to deploy eight new vessels to be able to service additional routes including Bulalacao (Mindoro), to Coron and Puerto Princesa (Palawan), Lucena to Marinduque and other parts of the Visayas and Mindanao regions. They expect the delivery of 10 to 12 ships by 2019. By next year’s first quarter, they plan to offer the Buliluyan (Palawan)- Kudat (Malaysia) route to serve millions of Filipinos working in Malaysia and enhance regional trade and tourism through ferry service.
“The Governors of Palawan and Malaysia are pushing for the Asean connectivity. We would like to service the Buliluyan -Kudat by the first quarter of next year. We are just waiting for the Malaysian government to issue some regulations,” Pastrana said.
Currently, FastCat has a fleet of 12 vessels, and targets to increase it to 30 ferries by 2020.