BACOLOD City – The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) will accept applications to extend franchise of public utility jeepney (PUJ) operators in this city.
About 500 Bacolod PUJ operators will go to the LTFRB’s regional office in Iloilo City today, May 17, to process their provisional authority extension.
Transport groups Bacolod Alliance Commuters Operators and Drivers, United Negros Drivers and Operators Center, and Negros Bacolod Transport Coalition held a strike on May 8 in front of the Bacolod City Government Center grounds after the LTFRB failed to issue an extension following the expiration of their provisional authority on March 31. The transport groups also conversed with Councilor Al Victor Espino, chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Transportation.
In a press conference on Tuesday, May 16, Espino disclosed the LTFRB will accept applications from Bacolod PUJ operators after Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez talked with Department of Transportation (DOTr) secretary Jaime Bautista recently.
Sentrong Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Negros (SSTONE) chair Albert Villanueva said the applications to be submitted to the LTFRB will secure PUJ operators a provisional authority until Dec. 31. The SSTONE and the Federation of Bacolod City Drivers Association joined Espino’s press conference.
The councilor also said Benitez asked the DOTr for an extension because the number of modernized buses operating in the city has yet to accommodate all the riding public.
City Ordinance No. 966, or the Local Public Transport Route Plan, allows 1,099 modernized buses to ply on different routes in the city.
But Benitez said only 50 percent of the modernized buses were currently operating./PN
