South bus terminal orderly despite throngs of people

CEBU, Philippines - Except for the shortage of buses, no major problem was reported at the Cebu South Bus Terminal during the influx of passengers going home for holidays last Friday and Saturday.

Eddie Dusaban Sr., CSBT acting operations manager, estimated the number of people who trooped to the terminal in going to their hometowns to observe All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day at around 60,000 while number of buses was only around 400.

On regular days, he said, only 285 buses are available, but because they anticipated a huge number of passengers, terminal management requested additional units from the bus companies.

The Capitol also deployed eight Suroy-Suroy buses that were used free of charge.

Still, the available buses were not enough to cater to all the passengers

“Grabe ang pasahero atong panahona, mura’g wa’y kahubsan (The number of people did not to decrease that day,” he told The FREEMAN.

Despite the bus shortage, Dusaban said everything went smoothly inside the terminal, as passengers obediently followed the traffic system they implemented inside.

Signage and railings were also set up to sort passengers according to their destination. The elderly, pregnant, person with disability, and those who have small children with them also have their priority lanes.

“Nindot kaayo ang (There was smooth) flow. First come first served man ta.  Kinsa’y nag-una sa linya mao poy maka-una og  lingkod sa (Those who arrived first were also the first ones to take a seat at the) waiting lounge,” Dusaban said.

The passenger lounge glass windows were also removed to facilitate better ventilation lounge because the airconditioning units bogged down.

Provincial General Services Office Chief Jone Siegfred Sepe said the Capitol is eyeing to upgrade the facilities of the province-owned terminal, particularly the conversion of its single-phase transformer into a three-phase system to allow all airconditioning units to fully operate.

“Di gyud nato puwede mapaandar atong mga aircon kay ma-ngaguba man lang gihapon (We cannot operated yet all our airconditioning units because they would just bog down) because ang capacity sa atong (the) transformer di pa man kaya (cannot take the demand yet),” he told reporters.

To prevent the problem on shortage of buses from occurring again this Christmas, Sepe said the province would discuss with bus operators and request them to ensure all of their units are serviceable during the occasion.

He would also recommend to the governor to request each of the local government units of Cebu to lend their Suroy-Suroy buses.  (FREEMAN)