The government will start distributing fuel subsidies to public transportation drivers and operators today (Wednesday) as Speaker Martin Romualdez said he will seek a dialog with oil firms to find a possible compromise to give motorists a respite following nine straight weeks of oil price increases.
“The government is not insensitive to the sentiments of our people, especially since this carries a domino effect on all products in the market. We all know that once the prices of oil rise, everything else shoots up – except the wages and salaries of our workers,” Romualdez said.
He noted that fuel being sold in the market at present are old stocks that have been in the inventories or depots of oil companies for months now.
“It is common knowledge that oil companies still sell supplies bought at lower prices before the costs of crude oil in the world market increased. Maybe we can appeal to them not to increase their pump prices in the meantime,” Romualdez said.
He acknowledged that the Oil Deregulation Law contributed to the high prices of petroleum.
“We don’t want to impose on them [oil firms], but we also want to know if they can help alleviate our suffering,” he said.
“We want to hear from them what they can do to help in this kind of situation, and if indeed they are willing to help at all because these oil price hikes have been a burden to our kababayans,” Romualdez added.
For his part, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chairperson Teofilo Guadiz III said no type of public transport will be favored under the subsidy program.
“The amount allocated to each beneficiary of the subsidy depends on how much petroleum products are consumed by their public transport,” Guadiz said.
“But I want to make it clear that it will benefit everyone. Modern or not. Consolidated or not. This subsidy is for all our operators who are struggling due to the successive increase in the price of petrol,” he added.
An operator of modern PUJ and UVEs who is qualified under the program will receive P10,000 in subsidy, while operators of other PUVs, whether modern or not, will each receive a P6,500 subsidy.
A qualified delivery service rider will receive P1,200 in subsidy, while a tricycle driver will get P1,000.
LTFRB data showed 1.36 million operators will benefit from the program, including 280,000 PUV units, 930,000 tricycles, and 150,000 delivery service vehicles.