Gas-run buses threaten to pull out of government program

MANILA, Philippines - Operators of compressed natural gas-run buses are threatening to pull out of the Department of Energy Natural’s Gas Vehicle Program for Public Transport (NGVPPT) due to continuing negligence of the government to address the issues confronting the program.

RRCG Transport System Co. Inc. president Roberto Torres said that since October last year, they have been able to operate their compressed natural gas-run buses due to the inability of Shell’s Mamplasan CNG station to operate and provide fuel to them.

“We do not know if they are purposely doing this (not supplying fuel in the Mamplasan daughter station),” he said.

Torres said those bus operators that invested heavily on the program are now losing some P200 million. For RRCG alone, he said, they are incurring P1 million worth of losses per month.

“Needless to say, the very promising pilot project of the NGVPPT has bogged down. We see our investment not only in the 45 CNG buses, but also in its technical support in terms of manpower training and supplier, as well as infrastructure-being wasted away and slowly sinking in the quagmire of Shell and DOE’s making,” he said.

He claimed that they are being given a runaround by the government on the real situation behind the lack of CNG supply in the Shell pilot station.

According to Torres, sooner or later, they would have no choice but to convert their CNG-run buses to diesel if the government will remain mum on the real score of the NGVPPT.

Shell’s CNG station in Mamplasan is currently close, according to Torres, due to the inability to transport the natural gas from the mother station in Tabangao.

But Torres claimed that the Mamplasan station had not been operating even before the problem of accessibility problem came into the picture.

In fact, he said the group of CNG-run bus operators had sounded off their concerns to President Arroyo.

In a letter signed by Torres, HM Transport Corp. president Crispin Rea; KL CNG Transport Corp. president Charlie Lim and BBL Trans System Inc.’s Avelino Souza to Malacañang dated Jan. 18, 2010, they pointed out that “the DOE has failed to compel Pilipinas Shell to shape up and deliver its commitment to supply the CNG requirements of the NGVPPT, instead it has acted more like the PR arm of Shell than the lead government agency in charge of ensuring the success of the NGVPPT.”

The group also told President Arroyo, in the same letter, that “It (DOE) has even failed to come up with alternative suppliers of CNG, seemingly ignoring and burying in bureaucratic red tape all our proposals.”

NGVPPT was created by virtue of Executive Order 290 signed by President Arroyo in February 2004.