Friday, September 29, 2006 Over 1T commuters stranded at Mactan airport by Milenyo
ABOUT 1,000 passengers were stranded at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport yesterday, after at least 21 flights got cancelled by Philippine Airlines (PAL), Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines, while tropical storm Milenyo battered Metro Manila.
Some of the stranded passengers went home, but they were definitely better off than the thousands stranded by flooding in Luzon, where the storm also left 11 persons dead and 34 others missing in its wake.
At the Cebu Port Authority (CPA), General Manager Angelo Verdan said all stranded passengers bound for various provinces were safe.
Deputy General Manager Dennis Villamor said the vessel passenger terminals at Pier 1, Pier 3 and Pier 5 housed the stranded passengers, who were kept safe from criminal elements because they were guarded 24 hours a day.
Villamor said the CPA has coordinated with the barangay officials and the Department of Social Welfare and Development in providing food for the stranded passengers.
Since Wednesday, inter-island vessels weighing 1,000 gross tons or less were barred from leaving Cebu port, leaving passengers little choice but to spend the night at passenger terminals.
In Mactan, PAL spokesman Simoun Canton Jr. said their Cebu-Manila flights scheduled at 7 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. and their Manila-Cebu flights scheduled to arrive in Cebu at 12:15 p.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. were all cancelled.
The first flight for Manila departed from Mactan at 4:55 p.m. Normal operations were restored in time for the flights at 5:15 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Canton said.
Marjorie Valiente, corporate communications manager of Cebu Pacific, said 70 percent of their domestic flights were cancelled due to the typhoon.
A total of 11 flights were diverted to Mactan, including an international SilkAir flight that was supposed to fly from Singapore to Manila. (EOB)
