BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Due to the incessant oil price increases, should public utility vehicles in Negros Occidental stage a transport holiday? Or should they instead seek a hike in the minimum fare?
Today, officers and members of the United Negros Drivers and Operators Center (UNDOC) will discuss their options, said Diego Malacad, secretary-general.
He pointed out that when the price of fuel was around P30 to P40 per liter, the standard fare rate was only P8; now a liter is over P80.
Malacad is proposing a fare adjustment of P25. A transport holiday is the second option.
The UNDOC official said the situation has become very difficult for drivers. They wake up as early as 4 a.m. to work and end their day at 8 p.m. but the earnings they take home is so little because they spend so much on fuel and have to pay the jeepney rent.
Nonetheless, Malacad is hopeful that Negros Occidental governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and Bacolod City congressman Greg Gasataya would hear their pleas and provide them with assistance.
Malacad also suggested that local governments use their calamity funds to help the local transport sector, pointing out that oil price hikes are a “disaster in itself.”
Should they decide to declare a transport strike, it would be the second this year following their “holiday” back in March.
UNDOC and other transport groups in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental have been calling on the government to suspend the value-added tax and excise tax on fuel./PN
