Thousands stranded in ports, terminals due to Paeng

Passengers heading to their homes and the provinces for the long Undas weekend might have to spend the night in bus terminals, sea ports or airports as a number of trips and flights were suspended due to Tropical Storm Paeng, according to "24 Oras" reports.

Several trips at the Manila Northport Terminal and Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX), and flights at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) were canceled on Friday, October 28, 2022 to ensure the safety of travelers.

John Rey Guliman, who was supposed to go to the Visayas with his family, said have no choice but to wait at the Northport because of lack of budget.

"Sa layo ng pinanggalingan namin kapos na rin ang budget namin," Guliman, who came from Pangasinan, said in a rpeort by Mark Salazar.

A number of travelers have sought refund for their unused tickets.

"Kung pa-reschedule ko pa, hindi na kami makaabot sa death anniversary ng mother ko eh di useless lang," said Romy Gramonte who was bound for Bacolod.

From Batangas Port, Andrew Bernardo reported that some passengers still made it to the early morning trip.  At 11 a.m., the port management has suspended the trips to the storm.

"Malungkot, dahil yung pamilya ko nasa Mindoro,. Kung hindi lang sana sa bagyo, nandun na sana kami kanina pa," Eduardo Magsipoc said.

Larry Aguilar said he and his family will wait for the next trip to Mindoro.

"Maghihintay kami sa next trip hanggang makatawid kami," he said.

"Wala namang ibang choice," another passenger, Larra Torres, said.

Meanwhile, the NAIA management said domestic passengers still reached 25,000 even though some flights were canceled due to bad weather. Food packs and malasakit kits were distributed to them.

At the PITX, 19 bus trips were not allowed to proceed. The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board also advised the suspension of roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) trips in Batangas Port.

"Due to tropical cyclone wind signal no. 1 raised in aforementioned areas, all roll-on roll-off public utility buses from the Port of Batangas are strongly advised to suspend their trips. Passengers are also advised not to attempt to travel if the weather conditions are still bad," it said.

PITX management said that stranded passengers could stay at the terminal as they wait until the Department of Transportation (DOTR) allows the trips to resume.

“Any given time, pwedeng i-lift ng office of civil defense at ang coast guard yung mga alert level warnings ay baka pwedeng tuloy na rin sila,” PITX spokesperson Jason Salvador said.

PITX recorded around 98,000 passengers who arrived and departed from the terminal as of 6 p.m. Friday. It said it expects over 150,000 passengers per day until November 1, 2022.—Sherylin Untalan/LDF, GMA News