1 week Ago
The North Luzon Expressway is expected to see heavy traffic as the Lenten break 2025 starts this week. INQUIRER.net file photo / JONATHAN VICENTE MANILA, Philippines — The bus, driven by Akbar Gutierrez, waits in line, ready to ferry passengers returning to their province for Holy Week.
But unlike his passengers—who are among the thousands, if not millions, of Filipinos expected to return to their provincial hometowns—Gutierrez will spend the solemn week working. Gutierrez, 38, said he could only go home by June or July, a few months after the Holy Week. Gutierrez has been a bus driver for about a decade now, but he only goes home every three months.
READ: More special bus permits needed amid Holy Week travel surge — DOTr His bus route is to Dagupan City in Pangasinan, so he cannot stop by his hometown in Bicol, which is out of the way. “There is really no chance for me,” Gutierrez told INQUIRER.net in Filipino.
“It just all work,” the driver also said, who supports his two children—his 17-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son. Gutierrez said he and his conductor, John Michael Rodriguez, would transform the bus they are plying as home for the Holy Week. Rodriguez, 23, just became a conductor for a week, and it is his first time not being home for the long Lenten break.
According to Rodriguez, he said they could no longer go to church, but “the Lord already knows our situation.” “But we never forget to pray,” he said. Others are more fortunate.
Marcos Sevolino, 51, said he will only work until Maundy Thursday because Good Friday is for unwinding. “We will have an outing, the employees,” Sevolino told INQUIRER.net in Filipino.
“It’s our Holy Week tradition, we go swimming.” Sevolino said this annual Good Friday tradition has been held since he worked at his company for 16 years. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address.
I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . “But there are others who don’t join us,” Sevolino said, “they drive their bus instead because business is good during that time when buses on the roads are few.”.
