NADSU ok to fare cuts if fuel prices decrease

CEBU, Philippines - As long as the prices of fuel would go down, transport group Nagkahiusang Drayber sa Sugbo said it will not oppose another P1 rollback in fare here in Cebu.

NADSU Secretary General Ruben Rama said the move to bring back to P6 the current jeepney fare of P7 would be reasonable if the current price of diesel and gasoline would also be reduced to their price at the time the fare was still P6.

During that time, gasoline was at P30 per liter while diesel was a little over P20 per liter. Today, the price of gasoline is P39 per liter while diesel is at P30 per liter.

In a separate interview, lawyer Manuel Iway, the petitioner for a P2 fare reduction on jeepney fare in Central Visayas, said he cannot understand why it is taking so long for the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to decide on the fare cut.

Iway said that since he filed the petition last year, LTFRB has only reduced the fare for P1.

LTFRB granted the first P.50 cut in August last year when the prices of fuel began to drop, bringing down the jeepney fare to P7.50. The second provisional P.50 cut was implemented in December, which further reduced the fare to P7.

Also in December, LTFRB removed the P10 add-on to taxi fare.

Last week, LTFRB announced that status quo will be observed on jeepney fare in Cebu and in other provinces in Central Visayas despite the reduction of jeepney fare in Metro Manila and Regions III and IV starting last Monday.

LTFRB regional director Romulo Bernardes said status quo is also being observed in regions I, 11, V, VI, VIII, IX, X, XII and X11, including CAR, ARMM and Caraga Region.

The Cebu Integrated Transport Service Cooperative had strongly opposed any move to reduce, contending that prices of diesel in Cebu are higher by P6 compared to that in Metro Manila.

Ryan Benjamin Yu, managing director of Citrasco, had said that aside from the volatile prices of gasoline and diesel, the soaring prices of spare parts are another reason why they oppose the fare reduction.

Yu argued that compared to Metro Manila, around 4,000 units of the 10,000 jeepneys in Cebu still use gasoline, which price had increased in the past two weeks. - Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMO   (THE FREEMAN)