THE Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Davao Region (LTFRB-Davao), as of May 19, has already issued special permits for around 500 public utility jeepney (PUJ) units to allow their operation while Davao City is under general community quarantine (GCQ).
LTFRB-Davao Director Armand Dioso said in a radio interview via 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio majority of the PUJ drivers and operators who were given special permits were walk-in applicants while some of them applied through online.
While Dioso did not have a breakdown of PUJ units given permits per route, he said these are from various routes, and a majority of them are now plying the city streets, based on their initial observation.
Dioso said the agency is continuously releasing the special permit and that to accommodate more walk-in applicants, the LTFRB is opening its office starting 6 a.m., two hours earlier from its usual 8 a.m. opening.
He acknowledged that the delay in the distribution of the special permits paralyzed mass transportation on Monday, May 18. Following the shift of the city to general community quarantine (GCQ), more businesses are allowed to resume operations.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said in a radio interview that the LTFRB should reconsider their process of granting the special permit as many individuals cannot afford to ride a taxi on a daily basis.
However, Dioso said the issuance of the special permit is mandated by the LTFRB national, through a circular memorandum, mandating all PUJ drivers to get a special permit before they will be allowed to operate.
Dioso explained that during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the LTFRB was not able to initially issue the special permits as the agency is working on a skeleton force and that they were only issuing special permits for free rides, free ferry rides of the local government, and shuttle permits for buses used to ferry private company employees.
“Although we had foreseen the bulk of transactions for the special permits on Monday,” Dioso said, but that the agency did not want to pre-empt the declaration of the GCQ in the city.
He also said the order of issuing special permits was only formalized following the IATF-EID guidelines.
He, however, emphasized that prior to the GCQ, jeepney drivers and operators were already instructed to prepare their units with the newly set protocols such as installing dividers or cubicles in the seats to ensure social distancing. (RGL)