THE recent earthquakes experienced in southern part of Mindanao greatly affected the influx of passengers during the recent holidays, the Davao City Overland Transport Terminal (DCOTT) management observed.
Dcott head Aisa Usop said the bus terminal had observed an average passenger increase of 50 to 70 percent from December 21, 2019 to January 3, 2020, from the 30,000 to 35,000 passengers on regular days.
She said that the same period in 2018 was their busiest since DCOTT reached a hundred-percent passenger volume surge.
Usop said south bound routes going to the province of Davao del Sur and Cotabato had a lower turnout of passengers as these areas were severely affected by the series of magnitude 6 earthquakes in the last quarter of 2019.
“Kadtong 2018, kini siya nga mga ruta ang taas kaayo og linya. Pero kadtong December 2019, kini na hinuon ang perteng mingawa nga mga ruta (In 2018, more passengers lined up for these routes but in December 2019, it only had a few passengers),” she said.
She also cited ample buses deployed by bus companies, which were given a special permit from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), as another factor that resulted to faster operation of the terminal during the holiday break.
She said an average of 1,000 bus trips per day were deployed, from the normal 600 to 700 buses per day.
Usop also observed that compared to 2018 wherein December 21 to 24 were the busiest, the increase of passenger volume in 2019 started on December 23 onwards.
The terminal manager also said that bus trips going to Cagayan de Oro City remain to be their busiest bus routes during the Christmas break.
Overall, she said the terminal operation was peaceful and no untoward incidents were recorded during the period.