Last Wednesday’s public hearing on the proposed passenger jeepney fare rate increase at Cebu Normal University in Cebu City drew little interest from the public who are either resigned to it or simply don’t want to be inconvenienced with having to argue with transport operators determined to raise their fares this year.
In fact, one or two of those who bothered to attend the hearing chaired by the regional Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) may have summed it up for the rest of the commuting public when they said they are against any fare rate increase at this time or any time in the future.
But we live in a free market world where supply and demand are often at extreme polar opposites, and eventually, fare rates will go up and down depending on the globe’s major oil players.
As things stand, oil prices have been fluctuating usually on the low end, so transport operators especially jeepney owners cannot blame fuel costs as the sole reason for raising their fare rates.
Just recently, they came out with their proposal to adopt the fare rate surge scheme similar to that used by drivers contracted under transport network services firms Uber and Grab, and in last Wednesday’s hearing, both the LTFRB officials and the commuters in attendance were united in opposing the plan.
There’s simply no way for the LTFRB who are understaffed and ill-equipped (and some say incompetent as well) to monitor the compliance of jeepney drivers and operators to their proposed fare rate surge on peak hours from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Any which way one sees it, it’s the jeepney operators who win and the riding public who stands to lose big in this fare rate surge scheme. Abusive jeepney drivers can charge P8 or even more to their passengers at any time of the day when traffic is heavy and simply claim they are authorized by the LTFRB to do so.
Ryan Yu, who heads the Cebu Integrated Transport Service Cooperative or Citrasco, said their jeepney drivers will be required to use clocks or timers to measure the duration of traffic in their area in order to use as basis for their fare rate surge.
But I think only fare matrix units used in taxis that are duly sealed by the LTFRB are reliable enough to determine if these jeepneys have been stationary in traffic for longer than necessary, and I’m quite sure jeepney operators are unwilling to spend for these devices.
Which is why Citrasco eventually gave up on their fare surge scheme and went directly to a P1 to P1.50 fare rate increase on top of the P6.50 minimum fare. They know very well they cannot hope to copy the fare surge model adopted by Uber and Grab drivers and expect the public to bend over backwards for them.
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In fact, I suspect that the fare rate increase being pushed by these Metro Cebu transport groups especially those based in Cebu City is intended to serve as a cushion for them once the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system becomes (hopefully) fully operational one to two years from now.
If I’m not mistaken, the jeepneys will be limited to servicing feeder routes as the BRT proponents describe that it would lead to the BRT terminals where the buses would transport them straight to designated stops with no middle-of-the-road loading and unloading of passengers like what abusive jeepney drivers usually do especially during heavy traffic.
That’s why jeepney drivers are opposed to the BRT and support the Light Railway Transit (LRT) system which runs on railway tracks that rise above the skyline but occupy large tracts of already limited road space.
That’s the case in Manila which is why jeepneys there continue to rule the road to the detriment of commuters whose options are limited to only train or jeepneys.
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It will be Holy Week this coming Sunday, and it’s no small irony that Filipino Catholics mark the annual observance of what is arguably the holiest and most religious time of the year while being witnesses to the scandalous behavior of some of the country’s top public officials.
Rather than dwell too much on their dalliances and on the multitude of problems facing the country, it’s best to focus on rest and renewal which a lot of Metro Cebu residents are looking forward to in the next few days.
Some local media outlets also look forward to Holy Week since it’s the only time of the year when they get to unwind from the daily grind of reportage. I join the others in praying for a peaceful and meaningful observance in the country.
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