The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) projected a modest increase in passenger during this Holy Week, considered to be among the busiest travel seasons in the country, with 2,455,389 passenger traffic or measly a 1.7 percent improvement from the actual 2,414,248 actual passenger traffic in 2025.
Comparatively, 2025 actual passenger traffic was 22 percent higher than the 1,976,229 actual 2024 Holy Week traffic.
PPA said the passenger traffic forecast for the 2026 Holy Week, which covers March 29 (Palm Sunday) to Easter Sunday (April 5), was made before the Semana Santa and based on the trend of PPA’s yearly passenger figures. There is a possibility of change in the numbers considering the rising costs of fuel products.
For the period March 29 to March 30 noon time, the PPA reported a total of 355,093 passengers traveling to the islands in the Visayas and Mindanao.
The top five PPA ports are Batangas, Iloilo River Wharf (Panay, Guimaras), Jordan (Panay, Guimaras), Calapan (Mindoro), and Bredco (Negros Occidental).
Passenger traffic during the Holy Week has been increasing annually as Filipinos take advantage of the long week and prefer to spend the celebration with families in their hometowns.
In 2024, the PPA reported a total of 1,976,229 passenger traffic, 1,870,037 in 2023, and 1,338,862 in 2022.
PPA Assistant General Manager for Operations Atty. Mark Jon S. Palomar, who personally conducted inspections, said that passengers have started to flock to the ports as of today, March 30.
The PPA has already implemented passenger assistance, crowd management, and closer coordination with shipping lines to ensure a smooth and safe travel for passengers.
Part of the inspection is the initial implementation of the Online Reservation Assistance System (ORAS), which aims to provide an online reservation system to all passengers to ensure they have ticket reservation for their selected travel time and vessel.
