No travel restrictions so far in CSBT

Passengers line up outside the Cebu South Bus Terminal on Thursday morning, March 26, 2020, hoping to catch a bus to their respective hometowns. CDN Digital photo | Gerard Vincent Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Around 10,000 passengers flocked to Cebu South Bus Terminal (CSBT) on Thursday morning, March 26, 2020, just a few hours after Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia put the province on state of enhance community quarantine.

With these developments, administrators of CSBT assured the public that there are still buses which will ferry passengers to the southern part of Cebu.

Read: Cebu now under ‘enhanced community quarantine’

“Unless the governor will instruct us to impose travel restrictions, we will still accept buses and passengers bound for the province,” said CSBT manager Carmen Quijano in Cebuano.

As of this posting, the management of CSBT has not received specific instructions from the governor yet. 

The line of passengers waiting for buses at CSBT has reached at a nearby mall, which Quijano attributed to social distancing being implemented inside buses. She also said some operators have slashed up to 60 percent of their buses, conductors, and drivers due to the economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“We have barred passengers from entering the waiting area since it’s almost full. We cannot allow everyone to get inside,” she added. 

As a result, Quijano said she has requested bus operators to deploy additional buses to accommodate all passengers queuing. 

Additional police officers were also deployed inside and outside the terminal to ensure orderly queuing. 

Quijano also said passengers showing symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) such as high temperature will not be permitted, and regular policies such as the requiring passengers to get a boarding pass still apply. /bmjo