PB supports petition to reduce PUV fare

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Provincial Board said they support the initiative of the Consumers’ Rights for Economic Welfare, Inc. (CREW) in filing a petition for a fare rollback of P1.50 for Public Utility Vehicles and P10 for the flagdown rate of taxi cabs.

CREW filed a petition before the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board for the mentioned pleas.

According to CREW President Vic Sapio, amid the series of oil price cuts it is reasonable to request the LTFRB Board to roll back the fares of PUVs and taxis to a level commensurate to the amount of oil price reductions.

Sixth district PB member Arleigh Jay Sitoy, principal sponsor of the resolution, also said it is time to request the LTFRB to reduce fares considering the oil price rollbacks.

Earlier, Sapio said that the P0.50 fare reduction is not enough because of the oil price rollbacks so they decided to change it from P7.50 to P6. He added that the cost of unleaded gasoline, which used to be P55, is now P45.

The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry is also supporting the said petition.

CCCI President Prudencio Gesta said that they are in favor of the petition for the same reason.

The oil price has gone down from as high as $110.55 last March 1 to $84.74 as of July 2.

He said that the P1.50 fare rollback is reasonable because of the 23 percent oil price reduction and that the figures tell that it is just fair that the fare should be adjusted now.

The National Youth Commission also supports the move to implement a permanent fare discount for students.

At present, students can only avail of the fare discount during weekdays based on the memorandum of the LTFRB.

LTFRB’s Memorandum Circular No. 2011-04 states: “The PUV operator shall grant fare discounts to students during school days and shall cover only those currently enrolled, in Preschool, Elementary, Secondary and Collegiate schools including academic, Vocational and Technical schools duly recognized by the Government, except: those of dancing and driving schools, short term courses of seminar type, and post graduate studies (those taking up medicine, law, masteral, doctoral degrees and the like).”

The amendment was already proposed by the LTFRB but was strongly opposed by transport groups.

According to NYC Commissioner-at-Large and Education Committee Head Gio Tingson, the proposed non-school days grant of a fare discount privilege to bona fide students from transport utilities intends to lessen and minimize the impact of the current economic and financial difficulties.   (FREEMAN)