DILG to LGUs: Augment fuel subsidy for tricycles

BACOLOD CITY, Philippins  — Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo said they are encouraging local government units to augment the fuel subsidies for their respective tricycle operators if "they are in a position to do so, or if they can afford it."

Robredo, who was in Bacolod yesterday to address the 3rd annual national convention of the Electronic Financials Users' Circle at a hotel here, said tricycle operators will be given a subsidy of P150 a month. 

"You're talking here of four liters a day for the tricycles that's why this is the only amount the government could give. We are encouraging the LGUs to augment (the subsidy) but it is not mandatory," he said.

President Aquino has signed Executive Order 32 providing fuel subsidies to tricycle and jeepney drivers to be sourced from a P450 million budget drawn from the special funds of the Department of Energy.

Under the EO, funding of the subsidies for tricycles shall also be subject to availability of counterpart funds from LGUs, which regulate the operation of tricycles.

"I think it is pretty clear there that the local counterpart funding will have to be made available," Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said.

Robredo said fuel subsidies for jeepney and tricycle operators nationwide will be distributed on May 1 (not May 2 as some reports said) with the money to be given by the national government to the LGUs through the respective city and municipal treasurers.

The DILG will be in charge of managing the distribution and the basis for the amount will be the number of tricycles with franchises, and this means that colorum vehicles are excluded, he said.

Robredo said Bacolod will be given priority in the fuel subsidy distribution because prices of petroleum products are reportedly higher here, a situation that he said the DOE is currently investigating. (FREEMAN)