JESSIE Manco used to earn P400-P500 daily as a jeepney driver.
Now, his take home pay has dropped to P300-P400.
The 41 year-old father of three blames the drastic drop of his earnings to the excise tax being levied on petroleum products resulting in the increase of their prices and to the traffic gridlock pestering motorists and the riding public.
“I have two children who are currently in third year college and grade 9. We are just doing our best to budget my meager income to meet our daily needs,” Manco said in Cebuano.
Manco said his daily earnings is budgeted for his children’s education and his family’s daily consumption.
The heavy traffic in Cebu City he said, is also taking its toll on his daily take home pay as this lessens the number of trips he makes in picking up passengers.
“If before we can have 10 rounds daily, now it’s only up to 7 rounds,” he added.
But unlike other jeepney drivers, Manco is not in favor of increasing the fare for Public Utility Jeepneys (PUJs), especially if it exceeds P1 saying the commuters will suffer the most if this happens.
“Before, we also experienced more than P60 per liter price of gasoline but still our minimum fare only went up to P8,” he said.
The Cebu Integrated Transport Service Cooperative (Citrasco) announced plans of asking the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to increase the minimum fare for jeepneys to P10.