Media powerhouse NET25 has closely monitored the opening days of the week with the Filipino commuter in mind. The NET25.com portal carried news of a record fine imposed on a motorcycle-taxi app, the long weekend’s passenger counts at various transport terminals and piers nationwide, a business group’s stand on the EDSA Busway as well as a night-time road advisory for Metro Manila.
For the ordinary Filipino wage earner, the commute is the first and last major expense of the day. A fare, a terminal queue and a lane closure reach the household before any other news does. In short, transport news is household news.
Tuesday’s top story was the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board’s Php 555.7 million fine on Move It PH for taking on more motorcycle riders than its permit allows: 73,321 active riders in May across Metro Manila, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro, against the 17,746 the agency allows.
The LTFRB warned that the app could be suspended and its accreditation revoked if the fine is not paid. For the commuter who books a motorcycle taxi every morning, the lingering question now is whether the ride will still be there.
The portal also carried the Management Association of the Philippines’ stand against opening the EDSA Busway to private vehicles. The group argued that accommodating students is not reason enough to let cars into the lane and asked instead for more buses, shorter intervals and more stations, naming Cubao, Ayala and the Pasay-to-PITX stretch among the gaps.
MAP’s figures made the case: 341,307,847 passenger trips from the Busway’s first day on June 1, 2020 to the end of 2025, and a single-day high of 454,649. The group asked Congress to restore the Busway’s funding in the 2027 budget, while allowing carpools, school buses and point-to-point buses under strict conditions.
The long weekend’s numbers came in on Monday morning. The Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange counted 1,499,454 passengers from October 25 to November 1, with 197,288 on October 26 alone, and its security personnel confiscated hundreds of prohibited items in five days, among them knives, lighters, butane canisters and cutters.
At the ports, the Philippine Coast Guard counted 1.2 million inbound and outbound passengers over the weekend, most of them through Cebu, Iloilo and Southern Tagalog, with the return rush expected on Monday afternoon.
Looking ahead, the Department of Transportation warned of slowdowns on Julia Vargas Avenue, E. Rodriguez Avenue and C5, Pasig Boulevard and nearby roads overnight from November 4 to 7, while a tunnel boring machine of the Metro Manila Subway Project is moved from the CP104 stockyard to Shaw Boulevard Station.
Taken together, the week’s transport stories tell the Pinoy commuter what the coming days hold: a motorcycle-taxi app on notice, a bus lane whose future is being argued over, terminals and piers that moved millions over the long weekend, and a subway whose machinery now crosses the city at night.
NET25’s reporting efforts place transport not as infrastructure news but as the daily reality of the commuter. This is what makes the portal’s national news useful and relevant to the working Filipino and the daily commuter.
As always, these stories are free to read anytime, anywhere on the NET25.com portal and are carried on Mata ng Agila on Digital Free TV Channel 28 and Analog Free TV Channel 25 as well.
The “alternative mainstream” network’s commitment to the ordinary Pinoy continues through news that follows the commute from the motorcycle-taxi app to the bus lane, the terminal and the pier.
