LTFRB raises bus, jeep fares

MANILA, Philippines – The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has finally granted the separate petitions for provisional fare hikes of public utility jeepneys (PUJs) and buses (PUBs).

Thompson Lantion, LTFRB chairman, said a 50-centavo provisional fare hike was given to operators and drivers of PUJs nationwide, raising the minimum jeepney fare to P8 in Metro Manila.

Lantion said a provisional fare hike of P1 was granted to Metro Manila bus operators for their ordinary or non-airconditioned buses, and P1.50 for air-conditioned buses.

With the provisional fare hike, the basic fare for an ordinary bus is now P9, and for an air-conditioned bus, P11.50.

For provincial buses, Lantion said the LTFRB granted a provisional fare hike of 10 centavos per kilometer for ordinary or non-airconditioned buses and 25 centavos per kilometer for airconditioned buses.

“We hope that this helps the public transport sector,” Lantion told The STAR.

Lantion and the LTFRB board directors reportedly approved and signed the separate petitions filed by different PUB and PUJ groups last Saturday.

Lantion said the decisions were made after two public hearings and all the computations done by the LTFRB.

“They filed the petitions for a provisional fare hike way back in March. Since then, the oil companies had imposed so many increases in the price of oil,” he said.

He said the LTFRB granted the provisional fare increase while it deliberates on the separate main petitions for fare hikes of jeepney and bus groups.

Public transport groups have demanded a P2 increase in the basic fare with an accompanying increase after the first 300 or 500 kilometers.

Zenaida Maranan, president of the Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines, welcomed the LTFRB’s move.

But George San Mateo, secretary-general of militant Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston), said the provisional fare hike would hardly boost their income.

“That is just an additional 50 centavos in the fare. But the oil companies have increased the price of gas by P1 and 50 centavos in the past several consecutive weeks already,” he said.

“What will happen now is that any additional earnings of the drivers will just go to the oil companies,” he added.

Meanwhile, Lantion said the government was pushing through with the program to give a P2 fuel subsidy to public transport operators.

“We’ll definitely implement that. We’re just finishing the details. But it will definitely be implemented, maybe next month,” he said.

Delays in the issuance of fuel “passbooks” by the Department of Transportation and Communications have raised doubts on the government’s sincerity in carrying out the program.

LTFRB’s recent announcement of the fuel subsidy plan helped convince many public transport groups not to join the “nationally coordinated transport strike and people’s protest” which Piston staged last May 12.