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BY RUBY SILUBRICO
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February 7, 2018
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P3.50 increase reasonable – consumers’ group
ILOILO City – “If there is no increase in jeepney fare our drivers would suffer.”
This was what the Iloilo City Loop Alliance of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (ICLAJODA) told Ilonggos during the public hearing on petitions to increase the current minimum fare of P6.50 at the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board regional office in Jaro district.
“The drivers won’t be able to sustain the basic needs of their families because their daily collections are no longer enough,” said Raymundo Parcon, ICLAJODA president.
ICLAJODA and two other transport groups – Iloilo City Alliance of Drivers Association (ICADA) and Confederation of Iloilo Provincial Jeepney Owners and Drivers Association (CIPJODA) – initially proposed a P5.50 increase in the minimum fare.
They eventually lowered it to P3.50 to meet halfway other sectors wary of a fare increase at this time when the cost of everything appeared to have ballooned due to the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law.
If the P3.50 proposed hike is approved, the minimum fare would rise to P10.
Human rights alliance Karapatan Panay would have wanted the proposed increase slashed further to P2.50 but the transport organizations held their ground.
The Panay Consumers’ Alliance (PCA) called the P3.50 proposed fare increase “reasonable.”
“This year, our drivers’ sector and various sectors of farmers, workers, urban poor, women, and youth and students, among others, have felt the tremendous impact of the Duterte administration’s TRAIN,” a statement from PCA read.
TRAIN has increased, among others, the prices of petroleum products through the imposition of excise tax.
“This resulted to the increase in the prices of basic commodities and services and now, the inevitability of a fare hike,” said PCA.
But while PCA stressed it was cognizant of the drivers’ plight, “to pass on the burden to the riding public, the increase in oil prices and the impact of TRAIN is not the solution.”
“This solution will only aggravate the dire situation of our farmers and workers (minimum wage earners), and sectors of students and professionals who are reliant to mass transportation,” PCA stressed.
The group urged the government to review its policies with regards the oil industry and mass transportation system.
“It is evident that the Oil Deregulation Law, the Expanded Value-Added Tax Law and the TRAIN Law are the main culprits of the unregulated increases in petroleum products,” PCA stressed.
It proposed the scrapping of these laws and the nationalization of the oil industry.
LTFRB Region 6 hearing officer Atty. Ma. Jocet Buyco-Abellar said the decision on the proposed fare hike would come from their central office./PN
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