Senators seek hearings on slow rollout of LTFRB service contracting program
MANILA, Philippines — Two senators are calling on the Senate to investigate state auditors' findings that the Land Transportation and Franchising Board in 2020 utlized just 1.07% of its budget for the service contracting program meant to assist displaced public utility drivers.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan on Thursday filed Proposed Senate Resolution 861 urging the Senate to look into the Commission on Audit's report which found that the LTFRB utilized just P59.7 million of its P5.58 billion budget for the program in 2020.
Sen. Grace Poe, who chairs the Senate committee on public services, filed an unnumbered resolution this week urging a similar inquiry. She also noted that only P3.02 million or .05% of the service contracting program's funds were actually released to beneficiaries according to COA.
LTFRB: Funds came late
The LTFRB in a statement released Wednesday said funds for the program were only downloaded to the agency in November and that the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the LTFRB and the Landbank of the Philippines, which governs the distribution of cash subsidies to eligible beneficiaries, was only signed in December 2020.
According to LTFRB, this means COA's report covered only one month of the program's implementation. LTFRB also said P1.5 billion of the program's funds have been released to beneficiary drivers as of June 30, 2021.
But Poe in a statement said it was "lamentable that the government simply shrugged its shoulders over its inability to disburse payments to our operators."
"It is unacceptable to be so slow in the release of payment funds to operators and drivers who tirelessly transport to our frontliners day and night," she added in Filipino.
COA in its report said only 29,871 drivers or 49.79% of the 60,000 targeted driver-participants were registered in the program for the entirety of last year.
"We are in emergency mode and need to act quickly. This is not acceptable as there are still jeepney drivers in poverty with nothing to provide for the family," Pangilinan said in a statement written in Filipino.
Citing transport coalition Move as One, he noted that there are at least 2.7 million land transport workers whose jobs have been at risk since the start of the pandemic.
More than half of these workers, the senator added, are drivers, conductors, and freight handlers.
"Billions of funds have been allocated, billions should have been utilized, but due to slow action and implementation, it is the drivers and conductors who are suffering," Pangilinan said. "The LTFRB needs to explain this negligence."
LTFRB in its statement said it is working closely with the Department of Budget and Management "for the release of funds amounting to P3.3 Billion on the remaining account payables."
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