By RALPH JOHN MIJARES
ROXAS City — “Efficient collection” of terminal fees and stall lease is the best that the city government can do to pay for the loan it acquired to build the Roxas City Integrated Transport Terminal.
Terminal fees and stall lease are the terminal’s only sources of revenue, said Carmen Andrade, city economic affairs consultant.
Seventy percent of the terminal’s income is used to pay the P50-million loan with the United Coconut Planters Bank, while the rest is used for its daily operation, she said.
If what the city government currently collects is reduced, the local government will subsidize the loan payment, Andrade said.
“That is why we are trying to have an efficient collection,” she stressed.
Earlier, Jobert Carandang of Hugpong Transport Capiz claimed that the transport sector pays for the city government’s loan.
“Klarong-klaro na ang transport sector ang nagbabayad ng inutang ng siyudad (Clearly, it’s the transport sector that pays for the city’s debt),” he said.
Drivers pay terminal fees prior to their dispatch: P100 for buses, P90 for minibuses, P80 (for routes of more than 45 kilometers) and P40 (for routes of less than 45 kilometers) for vans, and P25 for jeepneys.
Hugpong Transport filed a petition seeking the reduction of terminal fees to P15, P25, and P40 for jeeps, L300 vans, and municipal buses, respectively.
It claimed that the current terminal fees are too much for the drivers and operators.
But the City Council, through the committee on public utilities chaired by Councilor Jose Agdalipe, rejected the petition.
Agdalipe considered the petition “premature,” considering that the integrated terminal opened only in June./PN
