Pabama Transport
 | |
| Slogan | Bringing you to the next level |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Kibawe, Bukidnon province, Philippines |
| Service area | Mindanao |
| Service type | Intercity coach service |
| Destinations | |
| Fleet | ~40 units (Ankai, Yaxing, & Zhongtong) |
| Operator | Pabama Tours and Transport Corporation |
| CEO | Sirjohn Panis |
Pabama Transport, also known as Pabama Transit and Pabama Tours and Transport, is a bus company based in Kibawe town, Bukidnon province in the island of Mindanao in southern Philippines. It serves the routes between the city of Cagayan de Oro, the province of Bukidnon and the city of Gingoog.
A local provincial bus line with humble beginnings, it was the first bus company in the country to introduce the luxury bus with on-board tablets[1] and the double-decker provincial bus.[2]
History
The company was founded during the late 1990's by the Panis family based in Kibawe, Bukidnon. Around the same time, its sister company, Bucana Transit, was also founded by another branch of the same family. It started out as a local provincial bus line serving the Cagayan de Oro-Kibawe-Damulog and Malaybalay-Kibawe-Kadingilan route using both bought and locally-assembled low-grade provincial buses. While it continued to be so throughout the whole 2000's decade, it got some second-hand units acquired from Holiday Bus and other Mindanao-based bus lines to augment its fleet. As a marketing strategy and to better secure the preferences and tastes of the commuters, it often copied the livery of its corporate rival the bus line giant Rural Transit into thinking that it was a subsidiary of Rural Transit when in reality it was not.[3]
As Pabama Transit entered the 2010's decade, it began reforming its fleet, procuring airconditioned bus units for the first time in year 2010. But during the same period, its sister company Bucana Transit ended its sister partnership with Pabama and both companies parted ways, owing to intra-familial disputes. The moment the company acquired its first units from Ankai, it also started to copy the Rural Transit's practice of naming their airconditioned units into 'Tours', and thus the Pabama Tours was conceived. In year 2015, it entered the Cagayan de Oro-Balingoan-Gingoog route as it bought D&C Express the same year and integrated its operations to the company.
In 2017, they became the first bus line in the country to have luxury bus with on-board tablets per seat, which they all bought from Zhongtong Bus Holdings. The next year, they once again became the first bus line in the country to have double-decker buses which they procured from the same bus manufacturer. These acquisitions effectively graduated the company from a small local provincial bus line into a large first-class executive coach service company.
Fleet
Pabama Transport has the proclivity of putting the label Immaculate Conception in front of its buses, owing to the deep-seated Christian faith of the operator family.
Routes of service
All the listed routes below are serviced vice versa.
- Cagayan de Oro to Kibawe via Malaybalay, Valencia, Maramag, Don Carlos
- Malaybalay to Kadingilan via Valencia, Maramag, Don Carlos, Kibawe
- Malaybalay to Damulog via Valencia, Maramag, Don Carlos, Kibawe
- Cagayan de Oro to Gingoog via Balingoan
Ever since the company expanded its operations across northern Mindanao, it had been proposing to enter the routes of Cagayan de Oro to Davao[4] and Cagayan de Oro to Butuan.