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MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte --  Due to the tourist bus hostage crisis , Monday, August 23, the Association of Tourism Officers in Eastern Visayas requested the support of local government leaders to show a gesture of sympathy to the victims as well as to manifest the strong campaign that the Philippines remains as a safe country to visit.


Rosalinda Jane Araneta, Municipal Tourism Officer of St. Bernard revealed that they are requested by Regional Tourism Director Karina Rosa S. Tiopes to organize an activity to pay respects for those who perished in the tragic incident at the Quirino Grandstand, in Manila where 8 Hong Kong nationals were killed by the hostage taker, Sr. Superintendent Rolando Mendoza.  

MAASIN CITY --  The emergency room at the Salvacion Oppus Yniguez Memorial Provincial Hospital (SOYMPH)  became a beehive of activity as many passengers injured in a bus crash accident were rushed here this morning.


Initial sketchy reports received by PIA this morning disclosed that a bus, named Honor 2, was full of passengers when it fell off a cliff in barangay Sta. Cruz, an upland village, while on its way to the city proper from barangay Libertad.