Spotted: Stuck NLEX motorists cook meals amid heavy rains

Screengrabs of motorists cooking a meal along NLEX Valenzuela on the evening of July 21, 2025 while stuck on traffic on a video posted by lawyer Vanessa Realizan on TikTok (vanessarealz via TikTok)

Two individuals stuck in hours-long traffic along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) on Monday night, July 21, reportedly cooked instant noodles as heavy rains poured over the metro.

On Monday, lawyer Vanessa Realizan shared a clip of two men in the back of a loaded pickup truck, cooking what appeared to be instant noodles.

“Almost [four] hours na kayo sa NLEX, nagluto na ng Pancit Canton sila kuya,” she wrote on TikTok.

Pancit Canton is a popular brand of instant noodles among Filipinos.

The video showed them using a small LPG tank to cook at the back of a pickup truck.

They later poured in the seasoning and mixed it into the bowl.

“Filipinos are resilient, but we do not deserve this,” Realizan wrote. She said the incident happened along NLEX Valenzuela.

According to a report, the lawyer took the NLEX Connector to avoid flood-prone areas, expecting a thirty-minute trip from Manila to Quezon City.

However, she got stuck along NLEX Valenzuela for hours.

By 10 p.m., Realizan said she had already seen people cooking due to the heavy traffic.

She added that they finally arrived home after six hours of travel.

Reports said thatparts of NLEX were impassable to all types of vehicles on Monday night due to intense rainfall from the enhanced southwest monsoon (habagat).

Flooding has prompted bus companies to suspend or delay trips to Northern Luzon as a result of impassable roads and closed toll plazas.

The operator of NLEX said that as of the morning of Tuesday, July 22, 36 vehicles were stalled by floodwaters in the expressway.These included private cars and trucks.

NLEX Corp. conducted pumping efforts on Monday night to ease flooding, but the problem persisted.

“Kung saan pina-pump out ay malaki na rin po ang tubig. ‘Pag nag-pump out ka po, babalik din po, kasama pa po ‘yung malakas na pag-ulan,” NLEX Corp. Assistant Vice President for Traffic Operations Robin Ignacio said in an interview.

In its 11 a.m. Tuesday weather advisory, state weather bureau PAGASA said Metro Manila is expected to remain under rainfall warning until Friday, July 25.