The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board vowed not to be swayed by social media over the issue of the deactivation of Grab and Uber units.
At a transport forum organized by lawyer Vigor Mendoza II of the 1-United Transport Koalisyon in Quezon City, LTFRB board member Aileen Lizada said Grab and Uber belonged to the two percent of the 21.5 million passengers a day, and that the LTFRB will not give in to criticisms because of its stance against the colorum operation of transport network vehicle services.
“They [passengers] are creating a lot of noise in the social media. Definitely, the government will not budge. We will not be allowed to be influenced by social media.”
Lizada also expressed her sentiment on the concern of the transport sector that Grab and Uber were allowed to operate without a franchise.
“You have a five-year franchise, but these TNVS have only a year to renew,” she said.
Lizada said Grab and Uber have 150,00 trips a day, or tantamount to 300,000 passengers, or 2 percent of the 21.5 million passengers.
Despite this, the LTFRB is still compassionate not to kill the TNVS operations, and instead allowed Grab and Uber to meet its requirements for compliance.
“If we cancel their accreditation, the riding public will suffer, and the industry of TNVS will die. We do not want (TNVS) operators tp get hungry. We just want them to comply,” she said.
Meanwhile, Lizada told taxi groups to modernize its services and use mobile applications “just like Grab and Uber to be able to compete.”
She also reacted to the mounting complaints of unfair treatment of taxi drivers.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company has partnered with 1-Utak to provide wifi-on board and at bus terminals at an affordable cost, saying only 5 percent of the buses nationwide have wi-fi.