As the holiday season in the Philippines approaches its end, thousands of passengers have started flocking to bus terminals and seaports to return home before the weekend rush.
At the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX), senior corporate affairs officer Kolyn Calbasa said that 13,000 people were already recorded coming in as of 6 a.m. Thursday. The influx of passengers is expected until next Monday, January 6.
“Marami na pong bumabalik galing sa kanilang probinsya at papasok naman sa kanilang mga trabaho. Sa ngayon inaasahan natin na 170,000 to 200,000 for today dahil first day back to work na po tayo,” Calbasa said in an Unang Balita interview.
(Many people are now returning from their provinces and going back to work. We expect 170,000 to 200,000 passengers for today because it’s the first day back to work.)
She said that no travel delays were reported at the PITX as of early Thursday morning, and assured that there are enough buses to cater to passengers either going back to Metro Manila or their respective provinces.
Sea travel
Meanwhile at the country’s seaports, Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) spokesperson Eunice Samonte said that 3.5 million passengers have been recorded since December 15.
“Inaasahan natin na mas madaragdagan pa ‘yan sa mga susunod na araw dahil pauwi na ‘yung mga tao galing sa probinsya pabalik sa kani-kanilang trabaho,” she said in a separate interview.
(We expect that this number will increase further in the next few days because people from the province are now going back to work.)
Samonte said they expect the peak number of passengers arriving at ports over the weekend.
While the PPA has also not recorded travel delays so far, she, however, feared that there may be a buildup of passengers due to the lack of vessels operating.
“Actually, ito nga ang challenge, ano, dahil sa dami ng pasahero, usually nagkakaron tayo ng buildup ng mga pasahero sa pantalan dahil meron pa ring mga kakulangan ng barko. Ito po ‘yung palaging panawagan ng PPA, na magkaron sana ng karagdagang barko dahil ang ating mga pasahero ay tuloy-tuloy ang dating sa mga pantalan,” Samonte said.
(Actually, this is the challenge because we usually have a build-up of passengers at ports because there is still a lack of ships. The PPA has been appealing to have additional vessels because passengers are continuously coming to ports.) — VDV, GMA Integrated News
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