DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Passengers traveling to their provinces for the observance of the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are advised to travel as early as they can as close to 100,000 passengers are expected to flood the Davao City Overland Transport Terminal (DCOTT) beginning Monday, October 30.
In an interview on Monday, October 30, Aisa Usop, officer-in-charge of DCOTT, said starting October 16, at least 800 outbound trips are catered by the terminal. Each trip, she said, has at least 50 passengers.
“We only refer to outgoing trips where we collect P50 from each trip,” she said.
Usop said the regular monthly number of trips usually hovers between 600 and 700. This month, the DCOTT has recorded more than 1,200 trips.
“We expect that there will be 1,300 to 1,500 trips for Undas,” Usop said.
Undas is the season of Filipino Catholics’ observance of the day of the dead starting November 1 until November 2.
DCOTT has two walkthrough machines to scan and count passengers entering the DCOTT. However, Usop said they do not rely on the machine since the counter “only has four digits.”
Two lanes are assigned for women passengers, and another two for male passengers. An extra lane is also provided for pregnant women and persons with disability. But the lane for passengers with special concerns do not have walkthrough machines.
To avoid inconvenience for those rushing to their trips, Usop advised passengers not to bring bladed weapons and illegal items, including endangered animals. (davaotoday.com)
