MANILA, Philippines — With some jeepney drivers halting operations altogether amid skyrocketing gas prices, transport groups urged understanding from commuters and government alike, saying some operators have been forced to look to other means to keep their families afloat.
Oil companies implemented another round of big-time increases in the pump prices of petroleum products this week, with the price of diesel increasing by more than P6 per liter and that of gasoline by more than P2 per liter.
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"Those in the public transport sector are the most affected because it is difficult to keep riding when you make almost no income," Mar Valbuena, president of transport group Manibela told Philstar.com in an online exchange in Filipino.
"To our dear riders, we ask for your understanding if you do not have enough vehicles on the road."
Valbuena said that with the 6-peso increase on Tuesday, almost one hundred pesos has been added to the daily cost of the 20 liters of fuel that jeepney drivers consume per day.
"The 300 hundred pesos that we were bringing home last week is only P200 now, and if anything unlucky happens when you're riding, it's even less," he said.
"Most of us have now temporarily stopped driving depending on the route because they operate at a loss if they serve routes with not a lot of commuters. Some alternate their driving per day, but others look for other sources of income if there are any and others don't really travel anymore instead of shouldering the costs on their own."
What is the government doing?
LTFRB Executive Director Tina Cassion said the board is already tackling the reimposition of a P10 fare, though this pronouncement comes months after it first rejected petitions from transport groups to raise the existing minimum fare of just P9.
The LTFRB also continues to point to its fuel subsidy program as a solution to the woes of drivers, but logistic hiccups such as bottlenecks in the production of LandBank fuel subsidy cards have marred the distribution of aid thus far.
"The agency has been relentlessly implementing programs aimed at assisting public transportation drivers and operators. The LTFRB recognizes the role they play in keeping the country’s economy alive," it said in a statement Tuesday.
According to the LTFRB, state bank LandBank of the Philippines has yet to process the subsidies of over 57,000 recipients, though it was already able to distribute P1.17 billion worth of fuel subsidies to 68% of its beneficiaries.
"We appeal to jeepney drivers and operators not to push through with their plan to halt trips this week," acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar also said in a statement. "The government is doing what it can to help drivers and operators amid the rising oil prices."
'Not everyone benefitting from gov't aid'
But groups have long cast doubt over how much this can actually help, given the unequal treatment that jeepney operators get depending on their positions within the PUV modernization program the government has pushed over the pandemic.
In an interview aired over ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo, Orlando Marquez Sr., national president of the Liga ng Transportasyon at Operators sa Pilipinas said that the group's members have resorted to selling petroleum products.
Marquez said that drivers not qualified in the Libreng Sakay service contracting program — many of which are traditional jeepneys — were also negatively affected as commuters chose to ride jeepneys offering free rides instead.
"So how about those jeeps that pay high fuel prices and lack passengers because of payment? It looks like they're intentionally doing this because not all drivers are qualified for the Libreng Sakay," he lamented in Filipino.
"Many operators opted to stop as they shifted to putting up refilling stations. This made drivers lose their income."
Over CNN Philippines' The Source on Wednesday morning, Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines national president Boy Rebaño said that traditional jeepneys don't benefit as much as modernized ones.
"What hurts is that not everyone actually benefits from this P6,500 that they're giving out, especially our old, traditional jeeps. So they're the ones affected the most by what's happening," he said in Filipino.
"It's not just us suffering, it's the Filipino commuters. That's not what we wanted, but what we want is for the government to listen to our calls...we want to serve our riders, but if we can't provide for our families, we'll have to think of other ways."
Move as One: Libreng Sakay only means less jeeps
The Move as One transport coalition pointed out earlier that Libreng Sakay is only "viable to transport cooperatives and corporations that have the financial capacity to advance transport service operations for a period," saying that Service Contracting is "best implemented to partially subsidize public transportation and still allow transport cooperatives and corporations to collect fares."
As early as March of this year, the coalition predicted that Libreng Sakay would only result in a reduction, not addition, of public transport supply in the metro's busy roads because of the "social tension among transport groups and workers plying on the same route."
"Commuters will obviously choose to ride Libreng Sakay PUVs, making fare-based PUV operations less viable amidst rising fuel prices, the net effect of which will be a reduction of public transport supply. Commuters will ultimately suffer the consequences of the more lasting effect of a reduction in public transport supply."