RAIN or shine, the Davao City Transport and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) bared that they have temporarily deployed buses in some areas of the city to augment the need for additional public transport.
On Wednesday evening, September 4, the City Government of Davao has deployed provincial-type buses to Panacan/Lasang, Cabantian, Buhangin, and Calinan routes after receiving complaints from their office and through social media due to lack of public utility jeepneys (PUJs) in mentioned areas.
CTTMO head Dionisio Abude said the routes were earlier recommended to be included in the Peak Hour Augmentation Bus System (Phabs), which currently serves the area of Catalunan Grande and Toril.
Abude said on Tuesday that adding new routes is not yet possible due to the impending request from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).
However, city assistant administrator Tristan Dwight Domingo said they only received a “go signal” from the LTFRB late Wednesday afternoon.
“Dugay na kini gina-request. For the past few days, kada gabii nalang sige’g pananghid si Sir Abude sa LTFRB na kung pwede ta maka-deploy og mga bus aning areas tungod kada gabii nalang sige og ulan (CTTMO has long been requesting this. Sir Abude has been calling the LTFRB for the past few days to grant the deployment of these special buses on areas wherein passengers are stranded due to the recent rains),” Domingo said Thursday, September 5, during the iSpeak media forum at the City Hall of Davao.
He said they were struggling to get approval from LTFRB until they communicated with Chairman Martin Delgra who granted the deployment of the buses.
Domingo said the time frame of the deployed augmented buses is still uncertain considering that two tropical depressions, which would result to possible floodings in some areas of the city, are about to enter the Philippine area of responsibility.
Abude, meanwhile, said a total of six buses (two for Toril, two for Calinan, one for Cabantian-Buhangin, and one for Panacan-Lasang) will be deployed.
Unlike in Catalunan Grande and Toril wherein Phabs buses operate 24-hours, he said these augmented buses will only be deployed during peak hours (5 a.m. until 9 a.m.; 5 p.m. until 9 p.m.).
He will propose to extend the operating hours, depending on the volume number of passengers per area that needs to be accommodated.
“Nindot ato augmentation gahapon (Wednesday evening) kay wala nag-ulan. Didtoa gyud nato nakita bisan wala pa nag ulan, daghan gyud i-stranded nga pasahero. What more, kung ting ulan (The initial augmentation last Wednesday evening went smoothly because it did not rain. Our assessment shows that despite the absence of the rain, there are still passengers who are stranded during that time. What more if it rained),” Abude said.