Category Archives: Travel

MRT Mystery: Stations Are Packed But Trains Are Empty!

IMG_2213MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Metro 🚋 Manila’s Railway Transit System is no stranger to criticism, scandal and the constant ire of the commuting public, all because of long queues to reach the ticket booths and train platform, delays, technical problems and safety issues.

But the MRT management is puzzled by a phenomenon that appears to have begun on June 12, Independence Day.

There are still long queues and the stations along the entire stretch of EDSA are jampacked.  But each passing train is practically empty, and commuters are not fighting their way to get on board as is normally the case.

It took an investigative team from The Adobo Chronicles to help solve the mystery.  We interviewed hundreds of commuters at various MRT stations.

We finally found the answer MRT officials were looking for:

Starting last June 12, the government started offering free wi-fi service at the train stations along EDSA. Since then, commuters have been availing of the free service to check their social media accounts, send texts to their friends and family, and browse the Internet — all without using up their pre-paid data.

It’s a service that tech savvy Filipinos are quite thankful for, and for all good reason!

 

 

 

Philippine Government Inaugurates Free Wi-Fi Service For Filipinos

IMG_2143MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – As a fitting celebration of the Philippines’ Independence Day, the government tody inaugurated its free wi-fi service for Filipinos, starting with the entire stretch of EDSA, Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare.

The always reliable GMA News is also reporting that when completed, the project — a campaign promise by President Rodrigo Duterte — will extend all the way to Cuba!

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Thousands Of MRT Commuters Miss Their Trains, Thanks To BPI

IMG_2054MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Thousands of Metro Manila commuters missed their trains this morning because of the glitch that hit the computer systems of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) yesterday.

Many employees reported late for work while students missed their classes.

The mess began at around 7:45 a.m. when commuters started lining up to get to the MRT stations.  Many noticed that the queues were unusually long.  But they persisted.

It was not until about 9:00 a.m that the commuters realized that they have been lining up in the wrong queue.  The long lines were actually leading to nearby branches of BPI.  Bank customers were lining up to get to the ATMs and their bank to withdraw cash or to find out whether their accounts were affected by the nationwide internal system error at BPI.

Moral of the story:  don’t just follow the crowd.  Investigate!