Bus firms won't stop trips despite typhoon

Despite an order from President Arroyo to ban travel in Northern Luzon due to super typhoon "Paeng," bus companies in Metro Manila on Monday continued to dispatch buses to northern Luzon. Bus dispatchers claimed they had no "advisory" that the roads to Northern Luzon had been blocked, but state weather forecasters warned that the possibility of landslides remains high. "Just because the eye of the typhoon is moving away from Philippine territory does not mean the danger is over. There is still the danger of landslides. That's why we are appealing to riders not to take the bus for now," Pag-asa chief weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said in an interview on dzBB radio Monday. Earlier, several bus companies with terminals in Metro Manila continued to send buses at 20- to 30-minute intervals to areas like Tarlac, Baguio and Isabela. Radio reports indicated that the buses were coming from Partas, Victory Liner and Philippine Rabbit, which maintain terminals in Pasay City and Manila. "Why should we stop operations? There's no advisory from our terminals in the north that roads are closed. We don't want our passengers to get stranded," dzMM radio quoted Reynaldo Pamintuan, a dispatcher of Philippine Rabbit in Manila, as saying. Pamintuan said they were "well-coordinated" in Dau and Angeles (Pampanga), Alaminos (Pangasinan), Tarlac and Baguio. But dzBB radio reported that in some terminals in Pasay City, passengers themselves chose to cancel their trips. At the Manila Domestic Airport, meanwhile, dzXL radio reported that there was no announcement or advisory of the cancellation of flights from Metro Manila. - GMANews.TV