A GROUP of public utility vehicles in Lapu-Lapu City is asking for a P2 fare raise following a series of increases in petroleum price. They call themselves the Basak Lapu-Lapu City Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (Balacjoda).
That, while the Ceres buses, which ply from the Cebu South Bus Terminal (CSBT) to southern Cebu, will also increase their fare by P5 today.
Rodney Santarin, operations manager of Vallacar Transit Inc., which manages the Ceres buses, cited increases in the cost of fuel and operations as the reason for the fare raise.
“Kay ang atong aircon nagpundo sa terminal unya kalas og fuel kay wa man na gipatay. Di ta magpataka og pataas kay mao ra nay gihatag sa LTFRB (A bus on standby with its airconditioning on still consumes fuel. We can’t just decide on the amount of increase without the LTFRB’s approval),” said Santarin.
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) 7 distributed 1, 090 fuel subsidy cards that are loaded with P5,000 for the operators in Central Visayas. This is under the Pantawid Pasada Program, the government’s assistance program for operators while fuel price increased after the imposition of excise taxes under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusions (Train) Law.
Metudio Belarmino, spokesperson of the Cebu Labor Coalition (Celac), of which Balacjoda is a member, said that the P2 fare increase for the first five kilometers is a temporary relief amidst rising prices of basic commodities.
He said this provisional increase is the least the LTFRB can give while it had not yet acted on its petition for a P12 minimum fare for the first seven kilometers of travel in Region 7.
“Mao na ang atong nakita ba nga for how many months na wa may action ang LTFRB nga mopasaka. Kon imong tan-awon, ang taxi nisaka na, ang v-hire na sad, Balamban, kita sa jeepney wa pa man gyud gihapon... So, ang atua, we need immediate relief sa problema sa mga drivers (That’s the solution we see while the LTFRB had not acted on our petition for months now. If you look at it, the taxis, v-hires, Balamban trips have increased their fares, except the jeepneys. So what we ask is an immediate relief for the problems of our drivers),” said Belarmino in a talk with SunStar.
They will file their petition for the P2 fare increase on Monday, while they will meet with tricycle drivers to agree on the amount of fare increase that they will raise with the local government units.
Balacjoday has 93 member jeepney drivers and operators and tricycle drivers plying Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue City routes.
LTFRB 7 Director Eduardo Montealto said that while it will be easy to act on the provisional increase, it still has to undergo the usual process of public hearing.
“Kay di man na madesisyonan namo og diretso kay moreklamo naman pud na ang mananakay (Because we can’t just decided on our own, the commuters might complain),” said Montealto.
He urged Balacjoda to include in their recent petition the one they submitted last January so that the LTFRB can follow it up.
It was Jonathan Tumulak, the CSBT terminal manager, who posted on his Facebook account the fare increase that the Vallacar Transit would implement. (SCG)