The Pasay City Government has signed an agreement with an online food delivery service firm to provide job opportunity to tricycle drivers and operators affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Under the agreement signed by Mayor Imelda Rubiano and Food Panda Philippines, Inc. (FPPI) managing director Daniel Marogy last Wednesday, 150 tricycle drivers in the city will be hired as food delivery riders for at least two months under the company’s project dubbed as “Panda-Toda.”
The beneficiary drivers will be trained and oriented by the food delivery company, and will receive the same benefits, incentives and other advantages accorded to independent FFPI contractor riders, the agreement states.
Applicants, to be initially screened by the city’s Public Service Employment Office (PESO), must be residents of Pasay, at least 21 years old, have a Tax Identification Number (TIN) and a professional driver’s license, and must own and/or operate a tricycle which can be used as a motorcycle, among other requirements.
“On behalf of the Pasay local government unit, I thank Food Panda Philippines, Inc., a prominent food delivery service with a very wide network of restaurants as its partners, for joining hands with the local government in this initiative to provide an alternative income opportunity to our tricycle drivers whose source of income was affected by the COVID-19 health emergency,” said Rubiano in a statement.
“This is part of our overall efforts to help our city residents withstand the impact of the pandemic and recover from its adverse effects the soonest time possible,” she added.
For his part, Marogy said their company wants to give more livelihood opportunities for tricycle drivers displaced by the pandemic, as he likewise shared that this initiative would help ensure that their partner restaurants would remain available and accessible to the people even amid the still-limited means of public transport.
He underscored that the initiative is the Corporate Social Advocacy (CSA) project to provide livelihood opportunities to tricycle drivers who are adversely affected by the community quarantine which has been implemented to curb the spread of the virus.