This Week in Metro Manila (May 15 to 21, 2017)

The country’s flag carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL) will temporarily suspend their services for Cebu, Philippines to Los Angeles, California, USA flights and vice versa starting May 30. The company ceases the service as they rationalize the capacity on the route.

The airline advises those who already bought their ticket to rebook or reroute their flights to Cebu-Manila-Los Angeles route and vice versa. They can also rebook their flights to other PAL destinations or refund their tickets. PAL promises to waive any fees as long as the flights are rebooked, rerouted, or refunded within 30 days from their original flight dates.

To improve security measures, Cebu Pacific will now implement stricter rules in terms of accepting valid identification cards from passengers. IDs that are invalid, expired, or damaged will no longer be accepted and if necessary, some passengers will be required to present more than one identification card.

The enhanced rule is due to multiple cases of passengers forging IDs or presenting invalid ones.

The types of ID that Cebu Pacific will accept include:

Company or School ID, passport, or government-issued ID cards which reflect on its face the name, picture, date of birth, and nationality of the guest checking-in (e.g. SSS, GSIS, Driver’s License, Unified Multi-Purpose ID, PRC ID, PWD or PRM ID issued by the National Council on Disability Affairs or a local government unit, or Senior Citizen’s Identification Card issued by the Office for Senior Citizen Affairs in the city or municipality where the person resides).

The Bureau of Immigrations (BI) will be implementing has implemented new working hours for their employees this month. From 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM, the BI will now operate from 8:00 AM to 5:00PM due to the discontinuance of payment of overtime fee.

Travelers and travel agencies that transacts with the bureau are advised to take note of the new schedule. The main office as well its other offices will still implement the “No Noon Break” rule in accordance to the Anti-Red Tape Act.

The world will be celebrating International Museum Day on May 18 and various museums around the globe will participate on the said event. Coordinated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), this year’s theme will be “Museums and contested histories: Saying the unspeakable in museums".

Plenty of museums in the country will also participate and will waive their admission fees on Thursday. Some of the museums the public can visit for free are the following:

• Ateneo Art Gallery

• Ayala Museum

• CCP Museo ng Kalinangang Pilipino

• GSIS Museo ng Sining

• Lopez Museum and Library

• Metropolitan Museum of Manila

• Money Museum

• National Museum of the Philippines

• Presidential Museum and Library

• Yuchengco Museum

Read: Museums and Exhibits in Metro Manila That You Must Visit (Part 2)

Team GILAS Pilipinas will battle it out against neighboring Asian countries on the upcoming Southeast Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) championship until May 18 at the SMART Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City.

Other countries that will participate in SEABA include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand. The winner will be advancing to the International Basketball Federation tournament or FIBA Asia Cup 2017 on August 10 to 20, in Lebanon.

Read: Metro Manila: Your Concert and Entertainment Haven

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will be lowering the charge of electricity rates this month. The said change is attributed to the lowering of the generation charges and the strengthening of peso against dollar. Other factors that affected the change also include the drop in cost of power sourced from independent power producers (IPP) and under power supply agreement (PSA).

Meralco advices households that consume 200 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month can expect PhP0.29 less per kilowatt-hour on their bill or a total of PhP58.

This week in Manila, the mornings will be filled with clear skies but as the afternoon approaches rain and thunderstorms are to be expected. Commuters are best advised to bring an umbrella for protection from the unruly weather. A precaution for traffic is also a must especially during the evening.