PUV driversto get P500-M loan subsidy

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo directed yesterday all state-owned and controlled corporations and financial institutions to draw up a P500-million special, easily accessible loan program for public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers and their families.

The President said an initial P500-million micro-financing assistance will be made available, to be sourced from the revenues collected from the value-added tax (VAT) on oil.

Mrs. Arroyo directed Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Director General Secretary Cerge Remonde to encourage private market financing institutions to draw up a similar financing program for the families of transport workers.

Mrs. Arroyo issued the directive when she addressed the Forum on Alternative Fuel for Public Transport at the Hall A & B of the Philippine Trade and Training Center (PTTC) in Pasay City.

“I take this opportunity to direct all GOCCs (government-owned and controlled corporations) and government financial institutions to craft a special, easily accessible P500-million micro-financing program for the wives and the immediate family members of drivers and conductors of public utility vehicles,” she said.

The President told the transport groups that once the guidelines for the special loan package are drawn by the GOCCs and GFIs, the immediate family members of the PUV drivers and conductors could start filing their loan request.

She said the special accessible loan package was envisioned to uplift the living conditions of transport workers.

The President also took the opportunity to defend the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

She said they had been remiss on their jobs in weeding out corrupt traffic policemen and colorum operators.

“We are also fighting kotong (corrupt cops) and colorum (PUVs without franchise) to boost drivers’ income,” she said.

Mrs. Arroyo stressed the need to look for alternative means to augment the income of transport workers in the face of increasing prices of food and fuel.

Lawmakers also reiterated the need for the government to map out long-term solutions on the energy and food crisis even after the President announced that the government would provide another P4-billion worth of subsidies for the poor.

Senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero and Francis Pangilinan also raised their concerns that the subsidies will not address the problem caused by high oil prices and rising prices of basic commodities.

Escudero said the subsidies doled out by the government are short term and stop gap solutions to the problem.

Pimentel, for his part, suspects that the President is playing Robin Hood by giving out subsidies to address the sentiments against EVAT.

Legarda, on the other hand, said the subsidies are “palliatives which are temporary” and short-term in nature, intended to appease the affected sectors.

Pangilinan wanted to know if Mrs. Arroyo’s pronouncements would really reach the intended beneficiaries.

Government critic Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said the subsidies could be part of Mrs. Arroyo’s effort to sugarcoat her State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28.

Cruz said the government should stop the new round of subsidies since it would make the poor feel like beggars.

“The few who could receive the subsidies would again feel like beggars much indebted to their benefactor when in fact the money comes from them through the infamous VAT,” Cruz said.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) last week called on Malacañang to review the EVAT and the Oil Deregulation Law to determine if these were still beneficial to the public.

Cruz reiterated the better solution in addressing the needs of the people would be to just scrap VAT altogether. – Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, Evelyn Macairan