ILOILO CITY (PNA) - Iloilo Provincial Governor Arthur Defensor, Sr. is looking forward to the establishment of world-class passenger terminal facilities in the city and province of Iloilo. To initiate this move, Defensor has urged the city government here to repair existing terminals, especially those which serve passengers leaving for various towns beyond Iloilo City. He said that terminals should be at par with world standards since many tourists are starting to frequent the countryside. He said that in his foreign trips, he noticed that terminals in other countries are being maintained properly. Defensor said that in turn, passengers and commuters heading to Iloilo City to work and study daily suffer from the very poor condition of jeepney and bus terminals. He pointed out that the structures in these terminals have been left behind in terms of facilities and operations. The Governor also advised new Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog to also check out for himself the existing terminals, as well as the traffic laws governing jeepney routes. He also said that he is very willing to sit down with the "young" mayor in order to make sure that future terminal projects are at par with passenger terminals abroad. Defensor also reminded Mabilog that most of the workers in the city are from the out-of-town, and that they have been utilizing the services of these terminals on a daily basis for a long time already.
He pointed out that the city cannot live without its workforce, many of which come from out-of-town. Most of said workforce crowd the terminals especially early in the morning and when heading to home after work. Earlier, the Iloilo City Mayor said that he wanted the city to check the effects of the terminals to the volume of traffic in the city as well as on how to improve their services. He also noted the need to make bigger terminals in the future so as to accommodate the rising volume of commuters.
