Workers' group calls for Beep card refund after cashless policy takes effect
MANILA, Philippines — A labor group on Friday urged the transportation department to refund to commuters the cost of buying new Beep cards, as the agency's cashless transaction policy on buses and trains took effect yesterday.
The latest move in a bid to control the spread of the coronavirus in public transportation had resulted in long lines of passengers buying the said cards at P180, with the actual cost at P80 and a load of P100.
Such did not sit well with commuters, many of whom are still reeling from the economic impact of the pandemic.
Defend Jobs Philippines said the department should refund the P80 fee for the cards and scrap the P5 convenience charge and P65 required maintaining balance.
Christian Lloyd Magsoy, a spokesperson for the group, said the government "has long been treating the transport sector as milking cow to generate more profit than serving its purpose as a social service."
“Instead of putting their income directly to the needs of their relatives especially that most of them have just returned to their work," he added, "our workers have been forced to pay for exorbitant fees and charges, which could have been utilized for food, education and health expenses of their families."
The group has also suggested that the refund be instead converted as load to help passengers in their commuting expenses.
Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade on Thursday called on AF Payments Inc., a consortium of the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp., to make the Beep cards free once commuters buy the load.
"Workers who have just returned to work are the main users of the rail system and the EDSA Busway," Tugade said. "They should be spared from the burden of having to pay the price of the Beep card on top of their fares."
The Philippines emerged from the months-long lockdown due to COVID-19 in June, as government looked to restart the economy that had entered into recession for the first time in nearly three decades.
More modes of transport have since returned with the National Capital Region shifting to general community quarantine.
"Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, adding up more charges to the already burdened shoulders of our working people is untimely, unjust and will never be tolerable," Magsoy said.
The AFPI clarified that the cost of buying the cards goes directly to its manufacturers and not to them.
Beep card, which was put in use in 2015 in trains, is now also operational in the EDSA Busway System, point-to-point buses, and other public utility vehicles.
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