Roble Shipping Inc.

Roble Shipping Inc. is a Cebu-based shipping line located in Cebu City, Philippines. The company was founded by Jose Roble, a native of Danao City, Cebu. Established on February 20, 1985, it started with a small cargo vessel called MV Marao plying from Cebu to Iloilo containing rice and mixed cargo materials. Roble Shipping Inc. is now one of the major players in the Leyte and Samar routes. The shipping line has seven passenger vessels of which five are roll-on/roll-off vessels, ten cargo vessels and four barges and tugboats.^[1]

The founder and owner of Roble Shipping Inc., Jose L. Roble, died on September 11, 2009 at the Cebu Doctors' University Hospital at the age of 62. All of his sons and daughters now play important roles in steering the company.

The Duranos also helped in the early years in establishing the company.

In 2010, Roble Shipping Inc. will move all its operations to their new headquarters in Pier 7.

Passenger Fleet

Roble Shipping Inc's fleet of vessels consists of 7 Roll-On Roll-Off Vessels:

• • M/V Wonderful Stars (Current flagship)
  • M/V Theresian Stars (ex-Cagayan Princess)
  • M/V Joyful Stars (ex-Cebu Princess)
  • M/V Beautiful Stars
  • M/V Blessed Stars
  • M/V Sacred Stars (ex-Filipinas Surigao)
  • M/V Graceful Stars

Former Vessels

• M/V Heaven Star
• M/V Ormoc Star

Ports of Call

Roble Shipping Inc. main port of call is Cebu City. Other ports of call are Catbalogan City,

Nasipit and Ormoc City and the towns of Hilongos, Baybay, and Naval.

Schedules

Cebu-Ormoc: Daily - 10:00 PM - M/V Wonderful Stars ^[2]

Ormoc-Cebu: Daily - 11:00 AM - M/V Wonderful Stars

Cebu-Hilongos: Daily - 12:00 PM / 9:00 PM - M/V Theresian Stars / M/V Joyful Stars

Hilongos-Cebu: Daily - 11:00 AM & 10:00 PM - M/V Joyful Stars / M/V Theresian Stars

Cebu-Catbalogan: Monday and Thursday - 7:00 PM - M/V Blessed Stars / M/V Beautiful Stars

Catbalogan-Cebu: Tuesday and Friday - 7:00 PM - M/V Blessed Stars / M/V Beautiful Stars

Cebu-Naval: Saturday & Monday 9:00 PM - M/V Blessed Stars / M/V Beautiful Stars

Naval-Cebu: Sunday & Tuesday 9:00PM - M/V Blessed Stars M/V Beautiful Stars

Tragedy and Accidents

• M/V Hilongos Diamond sunk within the Bato, Leyte Port

• January 3, 2008 - The MV Heaven Star of the Roble Shipping Lines left Ormoc City about 11 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Cebu City port at 3 p.m. The vessel stopped off Isabel town in Leyte at noon. The vessel suffered a mechanical problem after seawater got into its bunker fuel. The company's other vessel M/V Wonderful Stars followed up to M/V Heaven Star's location to tow her.^[3]

• MV Wonderful Star collided with a foreign-owned cargo vessel MCC Sulo at 1:20 a.m. Saturday around 4.5 nautical miles (8.3 km) from Liloan town, some 19 kilometers north of Cebu City. The MV Wonderful Star's port side (left side) catwalk railings were slightly damaged while MCC Sulo's starboard (right) bow had a slight scratch.^[4]

• Last December 2, 2009 - M/V Wonderful Stars had a collision with a passenger cargo vessel M/V Subic Bay 1 of Carlos Gothong Lines. The said vessel had gone sideways and sustained damages estimated to be within P600,000 to P700,000.^[5]

See also

• SuperFerry
• Montenegro Lines
• Cebu Ferries
• Negros Navigation
• Sulpicio Lines
• Supercat Fast Ferry Corporation
• Trans-Asia Shipping Lines

References

External links

• Flickr: The Philippine Ship Spotter Society
• http://www.cebuboattrips.com/slow_ferries.htm
• Official Website