The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will deploy more than 2,000 personnel to major roads and transportation hubs during the Holy Week.
MMDA spokesperson Mel Carunungan, quoted by a GMA News report said the agency is “ready to deploy 2,104 personnel to monitor major roads in Metro Manila, especially those near bus terminals, airports, and sea ports.
Carunungan said MMDA acting chairperson Romando Artes ordered that MMDA would not be allowed to take a day off or be absent on April 5, 6, 7, and 10.
An MMDA skeleton staff will be on duty from April 7 to 9. A multi-agency command center will be set up and will start monitoring the situation in major transport hubs on April 3, according to Carunungan.
The center will be composed of the MMDA, Land Transportation Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, and the Philippine National Police (PNP), the official further said. The MMDA had earlier announced that the number-coding scheme in the metro will be suspended from April 6 to 10.
BHW Party-list group Rep. Angelica Natasha Co meanwhile urged the Bureau of Immigration and the Office of Transportation Security to exercise vigilance and ensure the safety of travelers as the summer travel season now goes into full swing.
“May I remind the BOC and the OTS to make sure inbound and outbound travelers are never harassed, robbed, or extorted as they embark on their travels,” Co said.
Co stressed that vigilance on the part of the authorities and travelers is needed now that lines at the airports get longer. Co also said that the New Year’s Day airport fiasco as well as recent incidents of thievery at the airport where OTS personnel allegedly involved—should never happen again.
“No school yearbooks are needed. The yearbook episode was a sorry misfire that backfired on the interrogator. We are not sorry for him. Come budget hearings time, we will remember to ask the Bureau of Immigration about the yearbook episode and other incidents in recent times,” Co, chair of the House committee on welfare of children and member of the House committees on tourism and on foreign affairs.
“Travelers must never let their luggage out of their sight or out of reach,” Co said.
She also stressed air travel authorities and airlines should have more personnel on duty during this peak travel season. They should expect surge in travel volumes, she added.
“Our country has different categories of airports. The most important distinctions are the airports that operate on visual flight rules only, which means these airports have mainly daytime flights. We have a few airports equipped with instrument landing systems that can land and take off airplanes even at night,” she added. With Maricel V. Cruz
