COMMUTERS, be ready with your extra coins when you take a ride on Public Utility Vehicles (PUV) in the coming days.
This after the Cebu Integrated Transport Cooperative (Citrasco) is set to file on Friday a petition for a P10 minimum fare for jeepneys before the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7).
Citrasco Chairman Ryan Benjamin Yu, said he was hopeful that the LTFRB-7 will approve their request for an additional P3.50 on top of the existing P6.50 fare.
“We will ask them to listen to us,” he said adding that the P3.50 increase was the amount approved by the group after consultations with their 1,000 member drivers and operators in Cebu.
The request for a fare increase was necessary, Yu said, to help drivers cope up with the rising cost of gasoline and other petroleum products as a result of the excise tax levied on them by the Duterte administration in light of the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law.
He said that they were supposed to file a petition for a P6 fare hike last January 24, but decided to defer it after feeling that it was too much especially for minimum wage earners who comprise the majority of their customers.
“We are looking for the welfare of the riding public. Medyo bug-at ra kaayo ang (It seems too much of us to ask for) P12.50, mao ra sad ang level nga makaya sa (which was also agreed by the) drivers and operators,” Yu said.