DOTr deploys shuttle buses for health workers

SPECIAL SHUTTLE SERVICE Army trucks escort buses ferrying health workers along Edsa Malibay in Pasay City. The ban on public transportation has left many hospital personnel without any means of getting to work. —RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — To help out many health personnel left stranded by the ban on public transport in line with the Luzon-wide enhanced quarantine, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) finally mobilized a shuttle service to ferry them to hospitals.

On Wednesday, the DOTr began deploying 10 buses servicing three routes from the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITx) and the BFCT East Metro Transport Terminal in Marikina City.

But the blanket ban on public transport meant that the frontliners would still have no means to get to these pickup points.

Nurses like Anne Singson would have to walk before they could ride on the buses. On Monday, she was forced to walk for five hours from her house in Cubao to The Medical City in Ortigas City.

“When you get to the hospital, you are already so tired. How can we be expected to fight the virus in this state?” Singson said in a public Facebook post.

STRANDED Nurses who need to report for work at a San Juan City hospital on Wednesday wait at an intersection in Pasay City, one of them flashing a sign appealing for a free ride. The government’s suspension of public transportation as part of the quarantine of the entire island of Luzon has posed added burdens for health workers amid the rise in coronavirus cases in the country.—RICHARD A. REYES

Assistant Transport Secretary Goddes Libiran said they would continue to realign the routes to make these more accessible across Metro Manila.

Routes were also subject to change depending on the data and requests coming from the Department of Health, she added.

Under the first route (PITx via Makati/Pasig), buses will pass through Makati Medical Center, St. Luke’s Medical Center (BGC), Rizal Medical Center, The Medical City-Ortigas, East Avenue Medical Center, Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines before heading to Quezon City General Hospital.The second (PITx via Manila/Taft) will pass through Pasay City General Hospital, Adventist Medical Center Manila, Philippine General Hospital, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Manila Doctors Hospital, University of Sto. Tomas Hospital, San Lazaro Hospital, Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Chinese General Hospital before stopping at Medical Center.

The third route (BFCT via East Avenue/E. Rodriguez) will pass through Quirino Memorial Medical Center, East Avenue Medical Center, Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, Providence Hospital, Capitol Medical Center, St. Lukes Medical Center-East Avenue, University of Sto. Tomas Hospital before heading to San Lazaro Hospital.