BAGUIO CITY, (PNA)–The Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) started to direct heavy traffic flow within all major roads late Wednesday afternoon as scores of residents aboard their private vehicles and passenger buses and vans started to move to the lowlands for the long weekend in observance of All Saints’ Day.
Police Inspector Virgilio A. Hidalgo, public information officer of the BCPO also noted that long lines of vegetable and cutflower haulers from the Halsema Highway have started to move towards Metro Manila through the main highways.
Hidalgo said several farmers of Benguet in anticipation of the possible adverse effects of the approaching typhoon “Vinta” have harvested most of their farm products intended to be sold during the holiday period.
The trucks are those hauling the estimated 100,000 tons of fresh farm products, mostly from private middlemen, while the rest are from retailers of fruits and vegetables from Central Luzon region and those in the coastal provinces of Ilocos region.
He said that with the frenzy of movements of people in this mountain resort 250 kilometers north of Manila due to the observance of All Saints’ Day with some 200,000 of visitors expected here this weekend, the BCPO has been placed under red alert status since Tuesday.
”The Oplan Kaluluwa is now implemented with the unprecedented leaving of scores of residents this early. We expect tourist arrivals starting Thursday noon. The special operations will keep the traffic flow in orderly manner and would help and assist the visitors and residents from all forms of danger and inconvenience including those from the criminal groups,” he said.
He added that volunteers are already preparing to be deployed in various crowded places like malls, cemeteries, and parks on Friday.