Every midnight in Tagbilaran (Bohol) not too long ago, two long bursts of horn from Sweetheart marked the time. Sometimes, if precious cargo still had to be loaded or if one last passenger was still scampering across the ramp, Sweetheart’s horn would come minutes beyond midnight. But for residents of Bohol’s capital, it hardly mattered.

Sweetheart’s midnight horn was one aspect of sleepy provincial life that was regular and constant. For a city aware but helpless that it was soon to be overtaken by a more hurried and thus more unpredictable life, that regularity was dear.

The M/V Sweetheart was a small ferry that plied the strait between Cebu and Bohol. Even with its small size, it carried about 300 people. It sailed at the ungodly hour of midnight, so passengers spent their short night’s sleep in cots that were narrow and straining on the back. Tarpaulin window covers shielded the passengers from the cold night breeze and the faint smell of fuel. On its return trip from Cebu at noon the next day, the covers were pulled down to shield against the sun. Sometimes, the engine would conk out. In good weather, the Sweetheart would glide gently over the water. In bad, it would roll with the waves.

There were other ferries that made the same trip, but they were less reliable and less frequent, and not as beloved as the Sweetheart.

But Sweetheart is now gone. After deregulation of the domestic shipping industry in 1993, the Sweetheart faced competition from bigger, sturdier and more convenient ships. Suddenly, it looked miserly, sailing next to these vessels. Not long after, it was not sailing anymore.

But the vessels that ruled after Sweetheart ruled only for a short period. In the mid-1990s, the fastcrafts arrived: new and sleek, modern and, yes, fast. With cruise speeds of about 32 to 35 knots (60 to 65 kilometers per hour), these hydrofoils and catamarans have cut travel time by more than 50%. Some propeller boats, still fastcrafts, travel a bit slower at about 25 knots. But the Supercats, perhaps most known among these fastcrafts boast of “a night vision capability that allows navigation at night even at speeds of 32 knots because of powerful camera lenses that amplify objects by 250,000 by an image intensifier.”

First, they were obviously fascinating novelties in domestic travel in need of some upgrade. Later on, they became de rigueur, changing – as in the words of one of its operators, – “inter-island travel as we knew it.”

The Coming of the Fastcrafts
These days, there are four daily fastcraft trips from Tagbilaran to Cebu– with schedules arranged for the convenience of different types of passengers: university students who leave just in time for their first class of the day, Tagbilaran businessmen who have lunch meetings in Cebu, and shoppers who cross the strait to go around Cebu’s malls. The advent of fastcraft created day-trippers — those who go to Cebu for a short visit and return home a few hours later. Of course, the trend is two-way – Cebuanos can now make quick day- trips to Bohol and come back just in time for dinner. And tourists can now base themselves out of Cebu and take a one-day sample of the tourist attractions that Bohol has to offer. Yes, the hurried and harried times have arrived.

The end of the Sweetheart and the arrival of the hurried life happened all over. Fastcrafts have also overtaken travel in other very active ports in the South, among them: Larena, Dumaguete, Dapitan and Ormoc. For a longer time, they have served trips between Calapan in Mindoro and Batangas City. Negros Navigation, one of the oldest shipping companies in the country has also long served the “Bridge Cities” of Bacolod and Iloilo. Marge Navarez, a businesswoman who manages several souvenir shops in Ormoc, Dumaguete and Tagbilaran says, “These fastcrafts have made it easier to do business. Before, travel between the islands made inter-island business difficult. These days, travel is not a problem anymore.”

The fastcrafts have also eliminated much of the inconvenience.

Most fastcrafts are equipped with modern systems that eliminate the motions of waves, so one does not feel so much like traveling on water. One just feels like traveling comfortably and safely in a huge car.

It has also become standard at the start of each trip to have safety and evacuation demonstrations, much like those in airplanes. And like airplanes, fastcrafts also have attendants who are trained to assist passengers during the trip. So, yes, one does feel like traveling by air.

The comforts of air travel have in fact, become standard: comfortable airline-type seats, full airconditioning, wall-to-wall carpeting, and video screens. Long gone are the days of uncomfortable cots, unforgiving heat (or cold) and tarpaulin window covers.

The deregulation of inter-island shipping and travel has also brought increased competition. Not all players have survived.

Water Jet once offered excellent inter-island travel. Aside from serving a host of ports in the Visayas and Mindanao, it had “daylight connections” between the very distant points of Cebu and Cagayan de Oro and Surigao via Maasin. It had brand new, jet-engined and computer-equipped catamarans and sat 350 people in each vessel. The Philippines was not quite out of the financial Asian crisis, when Water Jet, saddled by terrible currency problems and a weakened market, ceased operations.

There have been similar fates. Star Ruby, Bullet Express and Ocean Jet have either stopped sailing or have reduced dramatically the number of trips they make and the ports they serve.

Negros Navigation, long pampered in the Iloilo-Bacolod route without much competition took interest in the Central Visayas. Launching its Sea Angels Ferries in 1997, it suddenly found itself in a market with overcapacity and an environment that called for steep fare cuts. It eventually scaled down its involvement in the market as together with Aboitiz Equity Ventures and Hong Kong Park View Holdings, it formed the Supercat Fast Ferry Corporation. In 2002, the three-way partnership was dissolved. Supercat is now jointly owned by the Aboitiz Group and the Hwang Family of Hong Kong Park View Holdings.

Even Supercat, which claims to have 65% of the fastcraft market, has taken stock of things. Almost at the same time that the WG&A super-merger unraveled (itself another story), Supercat announced that it was streamlining its operations. Today, Supercat is now only running five fastcrafts, down from the original fourteen, favoring bigger 403-seater vessels making fewer trips than smaller-sized vessels running on more frequent schedules.

Some ports once staked out by the aggressive fastcrafts do not see any fastcraft trips these days at all. If they are, they are served by smaller and less reliable companies that are more fly-by-night than fast-flyers. The quality of service of the bigger fastcrafts has also been noted to have declined. Whereas before there was meticulous service, service these days looks more ordinary.

Supercat, for one, cut its employee size from 200 to 100 beginning March 2002, creating a reasonable expectation that quality would decline. The company is of course attempting to generate the same level of service with half of its original workforce. In September 2002, it came up with a customer evaluation survey done face-to-face in its now less-frenzied terminal. Never mind that the survey questions were not as pointed as needed. Still, its efforts in improving its value-added services is laudable: it is now possible to book seats online, as well as through telephone and short message service (SMS). Just recently, it launched a booklet of passes for its most frequent commuters.

At what price
The issue of price is delicate. Fastcraft companies, balancing increases in costs and price sensitivities of an already weak market, have attempted to offer the cheapest rates for the premium advantages of a fastcraft trip. But their rates have tended to adjust upwards.

In 2000, for instance, Supercat slashed its rates from P165 per passenger to P99 in reaction to similar cuts by its competitors along the Calapan-Batangas City route. Barely two years later, however, a passenger pays P240 one-way. The prices for trips on other routes have also seen huge jumps. One-way tickets from Cebu to Dapitan are now close to P700 each, Dumaguete to Dapitan at close to P430, and Cebu to Tagbilaran at P400.

Navarez, the businesswoman admits, “It has really become more expensive.” And so, while fastcrafts have opened the possibilities for day-tripping, journeys come at a price. One commuter planning to take a trip to Bohol was heard remarking vehemently, “I’ll take a slow ferry, the fastcrafts have become expensive.”

But as one website has advised, “If you’d like to save a few pesos and aren’t in a hurry, you can take one of the regular cargo and passenger ships. If you are impatient, take a catamaran.” The online advice goes on to describe cargo stored below and passengers in the upper deck, tarpaulins and cots, and ships that are often late for departure. The slow and simple romance of the Sweetheart is still alive in the age of the fastcrafts.