Thursday, May 08, 2008 LTFRB to grant subsidy to transport associations
THE Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) will issue a “subsidy passbook” to legitimate transport organizations nationwide that will entitle drivers to a P2 subsidy amid the increasing prices of fuel.
LTFRB Chairman Thompson Lantion said their agency is now printing the passbooks and would be distributed in the next 10 days.
Lantion told Sun.Star Cebu that aside from the P2 subsidy, oil companies will also give a P1 discount to all drivers of public utility vehicles, such as passenger jeepneys, buses, taxis and vans-for-hire.
To make sure that only public utility drivers own a passbook, the subsidy passbooks will have marking features that can be detected by LTFRB inspectors.
In Central Visayas, the distribution of subsidy passbooks will be supervised by LTFRB 7 Regional Manager Romulo Bernardes.
The passbooks, which will be valid for three months, will be inspected by an LTFRB monitoring team every week. A monthly data will be submitted to the Department of Finance.
On the report that the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (Piston) will spearhead a nationwide transport strike next week, Lantion said he is confident that it will not push through because LTFRB will hear on Monday their petition for fare rate increase.
The group is seeking to increase the minimum jeepney fare from P6 to P7.50.
Ryan Benjamin Yu, vice chairman and managing director of the Cebu Integrated Transport Service Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Citrasco), said Cebu transport leaders met last May 5 and agreed to join the Piston-led transport holiday.
Piston spokesman George San Mateo said they will meet again to finalize plans for the nationwide transport strike.
Earlier, Orlando Marquez, spokesman of the United Transport Alliance Coalition, a Party List group, said the strike is scheduled on May 12.
In a radio dyLA report, San Mateo said the strike could be prevented only if Congress will pass a bill that will suspend the implementation of the Expanded Value Added Tax.
Yu said he has already consulted the leaders of transport cooperatives from Danao City and the towns of Liloan and Carmen, and the Alyansa sa Nagkahiusang Drivers Alang sa Reporma.
Yu said the Cebu transport leaders believe in joining the strike as a way of pressuring the government to grant their petition for a fare increase. (EOB)
