- Free meals, free rides and no terminal fee at the Cebu South Bus Terminal this Kalag-Kalag
- Visayas grid on red alert again on Thursday evening
- Rain likely on Friday, then scattered showers through All Souls' Day
- Cebu gets ₱100 million to fix disaster-damaged roads, barangay roads first
Free meals, free rides and no terminal fee at the Cebu South Bus Terminal this Kalag-Kalag
The provincial government is running mobile kitchens at the Cebu South and North Bus Terminals, serving free rice meals at lunch and dinner to passengers waiting for a ride home, while supplies last. SunStar puts it at 1,500 packed meals from Friday, 30 October, to Sunday, 1 November; The Freeman's earlier report said 29 October to 1 November. Eight Capitol buses give free rides to persons with disabilities, pregnant women and parents travelling with small children, and SunStar adds senior citizens. Terminal fees at both terminals stay suspended.
If you are heading home to Carcar from Cebu City, the South terminal is where the help is. The free buses run on a schedule, with six trips from the South terminal on Friday, 30 October, and seven on Saturday, 31 October, so ask at the help desk early if you qualify. The meals are meant for people stuck waiting, not for everyone, and the province says to travel at off-peak hours. Expect slow traffic on the south highway, where towns have been asked to help manage crowds at roadside cemeteries.
Sources: SunStar, The Freeman
Visayas grid on red alert again on Thursday evening
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines put the Visayas grid on red alert from 5 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, 29 October, with yellow alerts from 3 to 5 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Available capacity was 2,408 MW against an expected peak of 2,555 MW, with 796 MW unavailable. The big coal units of Therma Visayas (TVI 1 and 2) and KEPCO SPC 1 were still out, and power from Mindanao was limited by outages at two plants there. Twenty-five plants were on forced outage and 18 more running below capacity.
This is the same supply squeeze as earlier in the week, and it falls in the early evening, when households cook and switch on lights. A red alert does not always mean a brownout, but it raises the chance of rotating interruptions, so watch CEBECO I's advisories and keep phones and power banks charged before the 5 p.m. peak. Using less power between 5 and 9 p.m. helps.
Sources: GMA Regional TV, The Manila Times
Rain likely on Friday, then scattered showers through All Souls' Day
PAGASA's special outlook for 30 October to 2 November names three weather systems: the northeast monsoon, a shear line and the Intertropical Convergence Zone. On Friday, 30 October, the ITCZ brings mostly cloudy skies with scattered rain and thunderstorms over Central Visayas. From Saturday through Monday, 2 November, the heavier rain shifts to Luzon, Bicol and Mindanao, and the rest of the country, Cebu included, gets partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated showers or thunderstorms. PAGASA warned that heavy downpours can cause floods and landslides.
Bring an umbrella to the cemetery and plan for afternoon or evening storms rather than a washed-out weekend. Friday is the wettest day for Cebu, which is also the busiest travel day, so leave extra time on the road.
Sources: GMA News, BusinessWorld
Cebu gets ₱100 million to fix disaster-damaged roads, barangay roads first
The provincial government received ₱100 million from the Office of the President through the NDRRMC to repair roads damaged by disasters from 2024 to 2026. The money arrived on 15 October, but instructions on how to use it came only on Thursday, 29 October. The Provincial Planning and Development Office said barangay and other local roads come first, including projects left unfunded in earlier years, ranked by urgency and extent of damage. It also said national funds for infrastructure so far, ₱500 million, cover only about a tenth of the roughly ₱5 billion the province asked for.
The list of roads has not been published yet; the Capitol is still putting it together. If a barangay road in Carcar was damaged in the last two years and never repaired, now is the time for your barangay captain to make sure it is on the province's list. National highways are DPWH's job, not this fund's.
Sources: SunStar, The Freeman
