Senator Risa Hontiveros on Friday urged the government to provide additional support to mass transport drivers and operators amid the runaway prices of fuel and other products triggered by the Ukraine-Russia war.
The senator noted that the drivers and operators of traditional public utility vehicles (PUVs) were being squeezed out by “better capitalized industry players who neither suffered through the pandemic nor had to deal with the inaction of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on fare petitions.”
She cited the Pantawid Pasada financial assistance program which was approved in March upon the recommendations of the Department of Energy (DOE).
But with the current situation, the monthly P6,500 assistance to tricycle and jeepney drivers got through their Landbank-issued Pantawid Pasada cards has hardly given them any breathing room, the senator noted.
She said that the plight of PUV drivers falls under the mandate of the LTFRB. However, Hontiveros said the government as a whole must come up with long-term interventions.
“The objective is to allow jeepney drivers and minimum wage workers the same take home pay before the price of fuel and basic goods went crazy,” she added.
Hontiveros pointed out that excess oil-related value-added tax (VAT) revenues for 2021 were supposed to have been assessed and made available to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) by the end of April 2022.
“This could be used to finance the second tranche of Pantawid Pasada,” Hontiveros suggested.
“But we should come up with a more sustainable, long-term response to this humanitarian crisis in the transport sector,” she said.