Ex-Pantranco workers say franchise still under review

MANILA, Philippines - Former workers of the defunct Pantranco North Express, Inc., once among the country’s biggest bus firms, belied claims made by some bus operators that Pantranco’s franchise to operate buses was already cancelled or revoked and could no longer be revived.

In a statement, ex-employees of Pantranco – represented by union presidents Romy Alfonso and Jun Pascua – said they were assured by the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) that what it had ordered was only a review of the franchise’s status, and not its cancellation.

This assurance, they said, was given by DOTC Undersecretary for Operations Rafael Santos during a meeting with union representatives on Wednesday at the DOTC headquarters.

Santos, according to the workers, denied that DOTC Secretary Manuel Roxas II had ordered the franchise’s outright cancellation. In particular, they said, Roxas simply wanted to know if everything was in order with respect to the revival of the Pantranco franchise. 

“Secretary Roxas is just having the franchise reviewed, not cancelled,” the union leaders quoted Santos as saying.

Santos met with the Pantranco ex-employees after they held a rally in front of the DOTC office to protest what they alleged was bias on the part of Roxas for not hearing their side of the controversy. 

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) had awarded the franchise last June to over 2,000 former employees represented by two unions to answer for millions of pesos in back wages the bus company had owed them. The employees, in turn, sold it to the Hernandez family, which owns the Victory Liner group, to raise just compensation due them as ruled by the Supreme Court way back in 1993.

Alfonso and Pascua said that the more than 2,000 employees of Pantranco were just asking for “social justice” from the government when the bus company closed shop in 1993 due to bankruptcy after the government sequestered the firm and took over its management and operations in 1986.

The controversy over the sale of the franchise, however, resulted in the resignation of LTFRB board member Manuel Iway effective July 15, following attacks from bus operators opposed to the sale. Iway and board member Samuel Garcia outvoted LTFRB chairman Jaime Jacob 2-1 in June in resolving the issue in favor of Pantranco’s former employees.