By NITZ ARANCON Correspondent AS PART of its campaign for safer roads during year’s Holy Week, a local public transportation firm launched its “Oplan iwas aksidente.” Rural Transit Mindanao, Inc (RTMI) Operations Manager Jun Amandac told Gold Star Daily, over the weekend, they would be enforcing their safety protocols strictly. Amandac added, however, that every time one of their buses plies its route they entrust the lives of its passengers and their baggages to reach their destinations safely. The RTMI management has listed eight points for their drivers to follow.
  1. Maintain one door policy
  2. Avoid overloading of passengers
  3. Report to authorities any suspicious persons
  4. No body parts of the passenger should be outside of the vehicle
  5. Observe priority seats for person with disability, senior citizen and pregnant woman
  6. No passengers allowed top sit in front  below 7 years old
  7. Strictly follow traffic rules specially no tailgating, reckless over-taking, over-speeding
8 Must be at full stop when passengers are  getting  on board or disembarking Amandac said they presented their road protocols to the Land Transportation Office, here. during their meeting last week with LTO 10 Regional Director Hilarion Ulep. He added they felt the need to be strict with their bus drivers since they are expecting a flood of commuters in the duration of Lent. In Agora Bus Terminal, Barangay Lapasan, Amandac estimated to be hosting some 5 thousand commuters at any given time during regular days. They expect this number to at least double during the Holy Week. In another development, Amandac assured commuters that they will be operating for 24 hours, even on Maundy Thursday and Black Friday. “Critical man gud ning mga lugar, paglapas sa Bukidnon to (General Santos), mao na nga ang atong first trip. Magsugod sa 6pm aron pag-abot didto sa critical area sa Gensan buntag na,” Amandac said. For their Cagayan de Oro-Balingoan, Misamis Oriental route, Amandac said the first trip would be on 5am and their last trip would be 8pm. He added their Davao via Bukidnon route and routes to the western part of island towards Zamboanga would follow the same schedule as their Balingoan route.