ILOILO City – The incessant increase in the prices of fuel is turning drivers of public utility jeepneys into “zombies”, according to the Western Visayas Transport Cooperative (WVTC) which is made up of several jeepney associations.
“They keep moving yet they don’t know where they are going,” according to the cooperative in a letter to the Department of Energy (DOE), referring to drivers and operators facing uncertainties spawned by the almost weekly fuel price hikes.
WVTC appealed to the DOE to suspend the value-added tax and excise tax on fuel to temper its rising cost.
Value-added tax is a form of sales tax. It is a tax on consumption levied on the sale, barter, exchange or lease of goods or properties and services and on importation of goods into the Philippines.
Excise tax, on the other hand, is a tax on the production, sale or consumption of a commodity. It is imposed on goods manufactured or produced in the Philippines for domestic sale or consumption or for any other disposition; and also on goods imported.
Last week, oil companies implement another big-time price hike for the seventh straight week, given supply constraints in the global market.
According to WVTC, jeepney drivers and operators are restive over “what will happen next.”
“They live in an environment of uncertainties. They do not know what awaits them as they wake up the next morning,” said WVTC president Raymundo Parcon.
Their letter asked Energy secretary Alfonso Cusi: “While the prices of the fuel products keep on increasing, what is the immediate remedy of the government, especially the DOE?”
“We are asking for an immediate response from our government…protect us in this time of crisis and uncertainties,” part of the WVTC letter read.
The group sought the support of Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas who in return requested the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) to pass a resolution favorably endorsing WVTC’s letter to Cusi.
Treñas also said he supports the call to suspend the 12 percent value-added tax on fuel.
“Actually everyone is affected (by the fuel price increase) but the most affected is the public transport sector. They are asking for a fare increase pero indi mahatag sa ila,” said Councilor Romel Duron, chairperson of the committee on transportation.
Parcon, also the president of the Iloilo City Loop Alliance of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (ICLAJODA), recently said they were seeking a P2.50 increase in the minimum fare.
But the most ideal, he said, is to roll back fuel prices. That’s because drivers now spend between P1,000 and P1,200 each day for their fuel – up from between P700 to P800 before the series of fuel price increases this month.
The increasing fuel prices are eating on the drivers’ daily income, he lamented.
Since the fuel price adjustments two weeks ago, local gasoline prices have already increased by P6.75 per liter, P9.15 per liter for diesel, and P8.45 per liter for kerosene.
“Daw sobra P2 na ang saka per liter,” according to Parcon. Thus they consider it reasonable to seek a P2.50 increase in the minimum fare.
The current jeepney minimum fare is P9 for the first four kilometers plus P1.50 for every succeeding kilometer. Drivers and operators want it raised to P11.50 for the first four kilometers plus P1.50 for every succeeding kilometer.
Aside from ICLAJODA, also calling for a P2.50 increase in the minimum fare are the Iloilo City Alliance of Drivers Association (ICADA), Iloilo City Alliance of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (ICAJODA) and the Metro Iloilo Transport Service Cooperative (MITSC).
An added burden, according to Parcon, is the pandemic restriction of 70 percent maximum passenger occupancy in jeepneys./PN
