Prayer for travel travails

For our largely Catholic country, the long weekend that ended our Lenten observance has always been associated with the holiday travel rush.

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

Droves of individuals and families going on out-of-town trips literally clogged traffic. The gridlock is not only experienced on the roads but is also replicated in seaports and airports in Metro Manila and across the Philippines.

"All hands on deck," Department of Transportation (DOTr) "acting" Secretary Vivencio "Vince" Dizon was quoted as telling all heads of attached agencies of the government as well as the private transport-related sectors nationwide.

Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Vigor Mendoza II, Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) official spokesperson Eunice Samonte, Jason Salvador, official spokesman of Megawide's Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX) cited this marching order issued by Dizon.

As the DOTr secretary, Dizon is the immediate supervisor of both the LTO and PPA, while the PITX is a land port terminal project under the DOTr partnership with Megawide Terminals Inc. Appointed just last February, Dizon started cracking the whip at all DOTr-attached agencies to prepare for the usual Holy Week travel binge of Filipinos.

Mendoza, Samonte and Salvador chorused having received this strict guidance during the ocular inspections done by the DOTr secretary days before and at the start of the Holy Week season last Monday.

At our weekly news forum Kapihan sa Manila Bay last week which coincided with Holy Wednesday, Salvador noted queues of passengers started forming as early as 5 a.m. at the PITX. This is at the second floor of the nine-story PITX complex that houses ticket booths for buses heading south towards Bicol, the Visayas and Mindanao.