Taxi, tourist bus sector remains sluggish

CEBU, Philippines — As Cebu’s economy is slowly recovering, the taxi industry business remains “sluggish” with only 30 percent of the 4,500 units operating.

Metro Cebu Taxi Operators president Richard Cabucos said many taxi operators are not yet keen to operate full blast due to the lack of passengers and tourists.

Cabucos, who owns 136 taxi units, said only 30 of these units are currently operating.

“Naay ubang taxi operators nga gamay ra ang gipadagan, unya naa pud uban taxi operators nga hunong gyud ang ilang operations,” he said.

He said that to adjust  to the times, some taxi operators have lowered their rental fees from P1,300 to as low as P800 per day.

“We have to lower our rental fees in the name of survival. Ang uban operators have to operate kay para pud tawon makabayad mi sa among loan sa bangko kay gi-loan baya ni namo ang among mga units, except sa kadtong mga dagkong taxi operators nga walay loan,” said Cabucos.

Tourist buses, too

Meanwhile, the 200 tourist buses in Cebu are not operating yet due to lack of foreign guests, as well as company, government or educational tours.

Ryan Benjamin Yu, chairman and general manager of Cebu Integrated Transport Service Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CITRASCO) and whose company operates 30 units of tourist bus, said they are open to the idea of converting such buses into passenger buses.

However, he said that as of now, no routes are available as the market is already “saturated” with Ceres buses.

Yu said that, for instance, out of their 30 units, around 10 were rented as shuttle bus for a private company.

“Pero overall, mga 25 percent out of 200 tourist buses in Cebu were utilized as shuttle buses. Ang uban units standby lang sa gyud sa parking area,” said Yu.

Yu added that since their units are brand-new and bought through the proceeds from a bank loan, they have no choice but to restructure the payment scheme.

“Pero dili gyud paigo ibayad ang income sa bayranan. So, ang nahitabo ani kay tapal lang sa gyud kay di baya na mosugot ang bangko di bayran,” he said. — JMD (FREEMAN)