Taxi drivers earned less during ASEAN Summit

Contrary to what was expected, the four-day ASEAN Summit in Cebu brought bleak business to taxi drivers as taxi commuters declined significantly.

Only a few of the delegates took taxi services because of the transportation provided for by the organizers for the main delegates as well as for the media covering the event.

Nemesio Velayo, taxi driver interviewed by The Freeman said most of his colleague decided to take few more days off because of unprofitable taxi business during the four-day ASEAN Summit period.

He added that there were only a few local commuters who went out from January 11 to 15 steering clear from being trapped in traffic due to some road closures, especially the 'ceremonial routes,' which connected roads from the northern and southern gateways in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue.

Another taxi driver, Gregorio Paralisan said from the first day of the Summit alone, his income plunged from an average of P2,000 in a 12-hour rounds, to a little over P1,000. In the second day, it went down further to P800, just enough to pay the P650 rent.

During the preparation of the ASEAN Summit, taxi drivers were called to get prepared for the influx of passengers, the government even allocated P700,000 budget to train taxi drivers on basic courtesy and road safety for the "Visitors-Friendly Taxi Service" program, as part of the ASEAN Summit preparation.

Over 2,000 taxi drivers in Cebu were trained on this particular program, all of them spent their valuable time to take the training, with expectation that good business awaits them during the four-day big event.

"We were disappointed, the exact opposite was happening. Only very few availed of taxi services among the delegates. And local passengers also declined," said Paralisan.

Part of the preparation to the ASEAN Summit was to introduce the taxi drivers' "Visitors-Friendly Taxi Service" program, drivers were oriented on values, proper hygiene, basic courtesy, road safety and cultural sensitivity or the "Dos" and "Don'ts", to wear suitable uniform while the respective taxi units must be clean and in good condition.

In August 2006, a memorandum of understanding (MOA) was signed among four government agencies and taxi operators group to undertake the "Visitors-Friendly Taxi Service" program. These agencies were the Department of Tourism (DOT-7), TESDA-7, Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB-7) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO-7).

The LTO-7 provided the guidelines on road safety and courtesy while the TESDA-7 through the Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise was responsible for the sessions on work ethics.