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THE Land Transportation, Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB)
has scheduled a hearing on the petition to raise the minimum jeepney
fare filed by the transport group Pasang Masda, LTFRB Chairman
Alberto Suansing announced over the weekend.
Suansing said the LTFRB is looking at setting
the hearing in the first week of September on the petition filed by
the transport group on Friday to revert the minimum jeepney fare
back to P7.50 from the present P7 for the first 4 kilometers.
Roberto Martin, national president of Pasang
Masda said that the fares even reached P8 for every 4 kilometers in
May last year, when the price of diesel was at P42.05 per liter.
In December 2008, it went down to P7.50 after
the liter of diesel went down to P35.98.
With the series of hikes in the prices of
petroleum products in the recent weeks, Martin said asking the LTFRB
for an increase in jeepney fare should not be a problem.
He then proceeded to accuse the government of
defending the big oil companies, particularly Petron, Chevron and
Shell.
Suansing said the government is merely going
through a process that must be enforced when affecting changes in
transport fares.
He said a hearing can only be conducted “15
days upon receipt of the motion” to increase fares.
Martin said that his group would meet with
various transport groups for the possibility of a transport strike.
Besides the petition of Pasang Masda, the fare
hike petition of the Alliance of Concerned Transport Organization
will also be heard.
This, as Suansing said that after asking taxicab
operators to issue receipts, the LFTRB is eyeing the jeepneys and FX
operators to do the same before the end of the year.
He said 200 units have been nabbed for failure
to issue receipts to their passengers since June.
Every taxi driver nabbed was penalized P2500.
Failure to pay the penalty resulted in the vehicle being impounded.
-- Francis Earl A. Cueto
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