Filipinos travel home for Undas 2025 long weekend

Traveler volumes at airports, seaports, bus terminals and thoroughfares are expected to surge as more Filipinos travel to their hometowns for the Undas 2025 long weekend.

The extended holiday period starts on Friday, October 31, which has been declared a special non-working day and is seen as the day when the bulk of the exodus out of Metro Manila will happen.

NAIA and the seaports

At NAIA, security is tightened as authorities expect 1.35 million passengers for the period from October 27 to November 5, or 135,000 a day. Police K-9 units have been patrolling the airport, while travelers are urged to arrive early to make the boarding process smoother and ensure they make their flights. Airport operator New NAIA Infra Corp. (NNIC) advised passengers to come to the airport three hours for international flights and two hours for domestic.

The NNIC also said it has activated "Oplan Undas 2025," which seeks to ensure the safety, comfort, and efficient movement of travelers and includes assistance counters set up at key passenger areas to help with directions and inquiries.

At the seaports, some 2.2 million travelers are expected for the Undas period, higher than last year's 1.9 million.

“Ang inaasahan po natin Thursday at Friday 'yung pinaka-peak ng mga pasahero dahil ngayon po, may mga pasok pa karamihan. So pagdating po nyan after work, dire-diretso ma po sa pantalan,” Philippine Ports Authority spokesperson Eunice Samonte told Unang Balita in a separate interview. 

(We expect Thursday and Friday to be the peak for passengers because now, most people are still at work. So when they leave from work, they will go straight to the port.)

At the Batangas Port, meanwhile, authorities denied that a rumored "beinte pesos" scheme was going around in which an additional P20 is demanded from passengers by scammers.

Roads and bus terminals

The roads leading away from Metro Manila, meanwhile, are beginning to snarl with traffic. The North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) expects the congestion to get heavier on Friday.

It is offering free towing to the nearest exit for Class 1 vehicles to keep the lanes moving, while Ambulances will be deployed to the road in case of emergencies.

Traffic on other major expressways—the Skyway, SLEX, the Star Tollway and TPLEX—is also getting heavier, with personnel deployed to these roads leading to southern Luzon to manage congestion.

"[L]ahat po ng personnel o tao ng SMC Tollways, naka-deploy na po...nakahanda na rin ang mga equipment namin: fire trucks, emergency ambulance namin, quick response team," Skyway O&M traffic safety management head Leopoldo Vitug Jr. said in a report by Jamie Santos on 24 Oras on Thursday.

In Metro Manila

In Metro Manila, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority suspended number coding for Friday, October 31, with many of the capital region's residents expected to be heading out to the provinces.

The Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP), more commonly known as the expanded number coding scheme, bars some vehicles on EDSA and other thoroughfares in the National Capital Region one day a week during the hours of 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., depending on the last number of their license plate.

Vehicles with license plates ending in 1 and 2 must obey the prohibition on Monday; vehicles with license plates ending in 3 and 4 on Tuesday; 5 and 6 on Wednesday; 7 and 8 on Thursday; and 9 and 0 on Friday.

Some cities in the metro are also taking advantage of the break to do some road reblocking, announcing areas that will be repaired during the Undas period.

A couple cleans a loved one's tomb in a flooded part of Wakas Memorial Cemetery in Kawit, Cavite, on Thursday, October 30, 2025. Many Filipinos going to cemeteries for Undas will have to deal with stagnant floodwaters, a longtime problem across the country. DANNY PATA

Cemeteries

Cemeteries are also dealing with the large influx of visitors. At Manila North Cemetery, one of the Philippines' oldest and largest cemeteries, more than 10,000 people visited the resting places of their loved ones. Officials there are expecting about 2 million visitors during the Undas break.

While crowds tend to be a seasonal issue, many cemeteries across the country are dealing with a problem that happens on a more regular basis: flooding. At the public cemetery in Hagonoy, Bulacan, it has been a problem for the last several years despite 43 flood control projects worth P3.05 billion in the municipality. — BM, GMA Integrated News