Cavite residents are airing their commuting horror stories which they say have worsened following the operations of the new Parañaque Integrated Exchange Terminal.
Facebook user Maeve Fabella described her ordeals using different routes to go home. She added photos of long lines of passengers at the Mall of Asia terminal, at the service road in Baclaran and inside the PITX.
Cavite commuter Jay Odion posted on the Facebook page of Cavite Governor Boying Remulla to air his grievances.
“Gov, it’s about time you address the concerns of your people. Transportation going home to Cavite from PITX, SM Mall of Asia and Baclaran is hell!” Odion said.
He said that commuters have to spend two to three hours in line and wait for a bus or a van to Cavite.
“It’s good that we have P2P buses going to Makati from Noveleta but what about those working in Pasay? Every day, I hear people saying ‘may operation na naman,’ ‘hulihan ng colorum,’ ‘kulang buses sa PITX,’ and it goes on and on and on. Nakakasawa na!” he said.
He also lamented that they resort to carpooling instead even if transport officials made their operations illegal.
“Please, help us or else ikakamatay naming Kabitenyos ang biyahe araw-araw,” he said.
Remulla has not responded to his complaint.
In 2018, PITX was plagued with complaints from commuters of Cavite and other nearby provinces since it started its operations.
It was that time when Remulla took to the Department of Transportation the concerns of his constituents.
The transport agency, LTFRB, and the management of PITX provided additional units of public utility vehicles and routes to temporarily reduce amount of passengers waiting for their rides.
Colorums
In March 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte made a directive to apprehend colorum passenger vehicles across the country following a tragic bus accident in Occidental Mindoro.
An inter-agency task force called “Task Force Kamao” was formed to implement this directive.
Since then, the DOTr reportedly apprehended more than 800 PUVs without franchises or are unregistered. These comprise 36 buses, 14 mini buses, 426 vans, 54 public jeepneys and 101 taxis.