LEGAZPI CITY – The Land Transportation Office R5 recommended to Civil Defense R5 director Francisco Ranches Jr. to temporarily suspend land travel bound to Visayas-Mindanao areas as a precaution of any mishap and to avoid long lines of stranded buses cargo trucks and other vehicles using the Matnog port as their exit.
Experience in the past when typhoon signals affect the Bicol Region vehicles bound to the area were seen stranded as far as Albay and along the Maharlika Highway in Sorsogon creating monstrous traffic that took days to untangle before all were cleared to board ferry boats.
It was also observed that physical discomfort and hygiene of stranded passengers drivers and helper became problematic for the local government unit and it was alleged that the first case of COVID-19 in Matnog town in close contact with an asymptomatic positive stranded person by enterprising locals.