LTFRB: Rethink new flag down rates

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has raised the flag down rates for taxicabs from the current P30 for the first 500 meters to P40 flag down rate effective this coming Jan.15, 2011. I don’t know if newly-appointed LTFRB Regional Director Ahmed Quizon has been permanently assigned here in Cebu City, but apparently he was the one busy answering the questions posed by radio commentators when this news broke out. Call it his baptism of fire because he defended the LTFRB’s approval insisting that we have a serious lack of taxicabs in Cebu.

I don’t know if Ahmed knows that there is such a thing as law of supply and demand. If he insists that there is a serious lack of supply of taxicabs, logic dictates that there is no need for taxicab drivers or owners to be given a new flag down rate because theoretically all the taxicabs in Metro Cebu are always filled up with commuters, right? So why then is the LTFRB giving these taxicab drivers, operators and owners a bonus at the expense of the poor commuters?

It is very easy for Ahmed to defend the LTFRB’s actions that there was a public hearing conducted on this proposal and no one from the taxi commuters opposed this proposed new flag down rate. First of all, there is no such consumer organization representing taxicab commuters. Perhaps Ahmed should tell us, who are taxicab commuting people, who would dare oppose such a move by the LTFRB? Didn’t Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III say that we, the public, is his “Boss”? Hence it should have been the LTFRB who should have opposed this proposal for the riding public!

Call it timely that last Tuesday, The Philippine Star came up with an editorial entitled “A Long Overdue Campaign” which says, “After receiving 650 calls and 16,719 text messages complaining about abusive taxi drivers over a two-week period, the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) has vowed to impose discipline in the industry. Henceforth, DOTC officials promised, fines would be imposed and driver’s licenses and taxi franchises suspended or revoked for offenses such as overcharging, using defective or tampered meters, and unreasonable refusal to convey passengers. Let’s hope the DOTC can deliver on its promise.”

I’m sure we in Metro Cebu have our own problems and troubles with taxi drivers, including old and decrepit taxicabs that should no longer be allowed to operate on any street, yet the LTFRB here seems deaf on these issues and instead, rewards the taxicab drivers, owners and operators a generous bonus which the public has began to cry out loud! In the next few days, gasoline prices would once more increase and no one here in Cebu is raising hell that at least the fuel pump prices in Cebu should be at par with that of the rest of the Visayas and Mindanao. But as it is, we are paying the highest fuel prices in the whole country, which is totally unfair to us Cebuanos!

When I was CITOM Chief from 2001 to 2004, I met regularly with the Metro Cebu Taxi Operators Association (MCTOA) and even offered to follow what taxicab drivers do in Hong Kong - to charge P1 for every bag that is placed in the trunk of the taxicab. They asked the LTFRB for this, but then, no one cared to listen. This was a good idea since taxicab drivers in Hong Kong would rather stop for a person that has baggage as it gives him extra money to open the car’s luggage area. But then ifLTFRB officials couldn’t care any less for the taxi drivers, how much more for commuters?

Thanks to the PNoy administration, January, the first month of the New Year 2011 will be an expensive month for the poor consumers. Now, this is one issue that unfortunately P.Noy and his ilk cannot blame on the Arroyo administration. If P.Noy has a heart, he should stop this nonsense ASAP!

* * *

I heard that the latest news about the sale of the Aboitiz Transport Corporation (ATS) to Negros Navigation, Co. Inc. (NENACO) was finalized last Dec. 28 after all the purchase conditions were met by the buyer. The purchase price was pegged at P1.8813 per share. Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. sold its entire holdings of ATS to NENACO which comprises 1,889,489,607 ATS common shares for a total purchase price of around P3.55 billion. Aboitiz and Company, Inc. (ACO) sold its ATS shareholdings of 39,322.384 ATS common shares for around P734 million. Both companies represent 77.24% and 15.96% the outstanding common shares of ATS.

With this sale formally considered a “done deal” the Aboitiz Group of Companies are finally out of the shipping business, though not entirely. They are still in partners in the shipbuilding industry. But this was one core business of the Aboitiz Group that can trace its roots from Don Ramon Aboitiz, the founder of the Aboitiz Group of Companies.

* * *

Email: [email protected]