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Friday, March 29, 2024

LTFRB vows subsidy for PUVs

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The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board will hand out cash subsidies to drivers and operators of public utility vehicles affected by the COVID-19 lockdown under the Bayanihan recovery plan in exchange for plying the routes for the government.

LTFRB chairman Martin Delgra III said his agency will hire PUV drivers and operators under a service contracting program in exchange for cash subsidies.

The government has allocated P5.8 billion for the subsidies, P3 billion of which will be dedicated for drivers of public utility jeepneys.

“‘Yung paglalaan ng pondo, patungkol dito sa service contracting. Ang serbisyo ng ating mga driver at operator would be subsidized by the government,” Delgra said during a Palace briefing.

“But the subsidy is based on what we call performance-based. Meron pong mga indicators na kailangan po nating mailagay sa sistema, for which they will conform,” he added.

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In the same briefing, Delgra said the LTFRB also plans to open additional provincial routes covering Metro Manila this week.

Delgra said the additional routes include Davao City and Mabalacat, Pampanga in Central Luzon.

“In terms of increasing capacity for provincial buses, we will be opening up additional routes this week and another set of inter-regional routes going into Metro Manila coming all the way from Davao City. Aside from that, Mabalacat, Pampanga has already opened up that route,” Delgra said.

The LTFRB said that agency is still in the process of coordinating with other local governments to allow their borders to be opened for provincial trips.

Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe questioned the government if the country’s current public transport system is capable of handling the sudden surge of commuters if quarantine restrictions will be eased and the curfew hours shortened.

“Are there enough PUVs to ferry them from one place to another? Is our current public transport system capable of handling such surge of commuters? Are there enough PUVs to ferry them from one place to another?” Poe asked.

Poe said that relaxing curfew hours and quarantine restrictions will naturally result in more people out of their homes and in public places.

She noted that without the complementary boost in number of jeepneys and other PUVs, commuters will suffer and face the risk of infection due to crowding in terminals and public vehicles.

She said more jeepneys should be allowed to return to the road while adhering to health protocols.

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