By Ninfa B Quirante

Tacloban City (2 December) -- To accommodate the swelling number of postal patrons during the Christmas holidays, the Philippine Postal Corporation Catbalogan City and Calbayog City start opening today, a holiday and on Saturdays and Sundays.

In a radio interview with CCATMAN mainstays Emy Bonifacio and Rey Gaspay, the duo learned that the special holiday services will last until January 16, 2007, as announced by Mr Danilo Cinco Postmaster.

The only two days they would be off, said Cinco is on Christmas and New Year's day.

To confirm the announcement, PIA Samar visited the post office today, and chanced upon a mailer Jingjing 18 who said she heard that the post office would remain open daily.

Two postmen, named Jonathan Laotingco and Lito Carcellar were on duty today. They said that the office will give them days off equivalent to their services rendered during non-working days.

Almost all services during the weekdays are still on during weekends like money order, regular mailing, issuance of postal Id and the like.

In an earlier interview with the Postmaster, he admitted that their patrons have declined through the years but said that during the Christmas season, number of clients peak especially deliveries from abroad.

Cinco also added that the mail today has an additional feature like knowing who received your mail through an issued acknowledgement receipt. With this new feature, the sender is assured that the mail was received.

This is called Priority and Express (PREX) mails to a safer, faster and more reliable mail delivery.