MANILA - Thousands of passengers waited long hours at Calapan Port for a trip to Batangas after the New Year celebrations following the cancellation of sea travel for fastcraft due to tropical depression Agaton.

Leonardo Villena, officer-in-charge of Port Management Office of Mindoro operations office, said the number of Batangas-bound passengers peaked at 15,381 on Tuesday, January 2.

At least 5,293 passengers, meanwhile, were able to go to Batangas on Thursday from 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Scores of people are still waiting for their trips at the port.

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David Labon, who arrived at Calapan Port on Wednesday at around 10 a.m., said he was able to secure an open ticket at 1 p.m. and was only able to ride a sea vessel to Batangas at 10 p.m.

"Ang dami pong nakapila sa mga barko po sa mga ticketing office. Tapos wala pong biyahe ng fastcraft," he told DZMM.

"Nabigyan lang kami ng ticket kasi kailangan ma-first aid 'yung asawa ko."

Labon said he arrived in Manila early Thursday morning.

Lt. Anthony Cuevas, commander of the Philippine Coast Guard Oriental Mindoro, said only trips of small fastcrafts were cancelled because of Tropical Depression Agaton.

He insisted that the passengers were not stranded but were just delayed in their trips as the roll on-roll off vessels have continued operations the entire holiday.

"Tuloy-tuloy ang biyahe sa mga port natin," he told DZMM, stressing the high volume of passengers. "Baka po mali ang appreciation nila. Hindi sila stranded, baka po sila ay delayed."

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Meanwhile, Villena said cancelled trips of fastcrafts may have caused the delay as these small vessels, when operational, can transfer passengers very fast.

Authorities are expecting the volume of passengers in Calapan Port to decrease as the Philippine Coast Guard has already allowed fastcrafts to resume their trips on Thursday morning.