P1 additional to minimum: Transport group to seek fare hike

CEBU, Philippines - The mother organization of all transport groups here is set to file a formal petition asking for a P1 increase in the minimum fare for jeepneys within this week before the Land Transportation and Franchising and Regulatory Board.

If the request of the Cebu Confederation of Transport Operators and Drivers Association Inc. is approved, the minimum fare for jeepneys in Central Visayas would become P7.50.

CCTODI chairman Ryan Benjamin Yu told The Freeman yesterday that they will seek an increase only for the minimum fare (first five kilometers), but not for the additional fare for each succeeding kilometer.

Yu said that the price of diesel per liter has already increased by P4.50 in the past two weeks.

The latest increaser was for P1.50 implemented at midnight yesterday.

Yu added that he will have a meeting with LTFRB regional director Romulo Bernardes today together with the leaders of the various transport groups to discuss the matter.

CCTODI’s member organizations include the Alyansa sa Nagkahiusang Drayber-Operator Alang sa Reporma (ANDAR) , the Southern Cebu Operators and Drivers Association Inc. (SCODAI), the Visayan United Drivers Transport Services Cooperative (VUDTRASCO) , the Cebu Integrated Transport Service Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CITRASCO), the Metro Cebu Taxi Operators Association (MCTOA), the Cebu Provincial Bus Operators (CPBOA) and the Cebu Truckers Association Inc. (CTAI).

But for the militant transport group, the Nagkahiusang Drayber sa Sugbo (NADSU) they have no plans so far to join with the group.

NADSU provincial council member Eduardo Geolin said that it is up to their mother organization, the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON) whether to seek a fare hike considering that their stand remains about having a uniform minimum fare for jeepneys all over the country.

Last March 9, the minimum fare for jeepneys in Central Visayas was reduced to 6.50 after the LTFRB in Manila approved a 50 centavos fare rollback.

Bernardes then appealed to the transport groups to reconsider its stand in opposing the said fare rollback, to consider also the plight of the commuters.

Yu, who is also the managing director of CITRASCO, said that even if they are against such fare rollback, they nevertheless abide with the LTFRB’s decision.

Citrasco is the biggest transport cooperative in Cebu with 1,000 units of jeepneys.

Region VII has around 10,000 jeepney units majority of which are in Cebu.

It maybe recalled that jeepney’s minimum fare in Central Visayas reached to P8 in July last year amid the rising cost of fuel but it was reduced to P7.50 sometime in August last year when prices of fuel started to drop.

Furthermore, on December 15, 2008, LTRFB implemented a second round of provisional fare reduction of 50 centavos for jeepneys making it P7 from P7.50.—/NLQ   (THE FREEMAN)