Montealto: Libreng Sakay in CV may end by mid-November
LTFRB-7 Director Eduardo Montealto Jr. | file photo
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – The top official of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7) said phase two of the Libreng Sakay and service contracting program may already end next month.
Director Eduardo Montealto Jr. told CDN Digital that he received instructions from their head office to already refrain from accepting new participants because they already have more than enough units joining in the program’s implementation here.
The Libreng Sakay program is set to resume early in 2022 after all the phase two program participants are paid and after a new allocation is set aside.
As of Saturday, October 9, 2021, a total of 484 units were deployed in the region to cater to the transportation needs of health care workers (HCWs) and authorized persons outside residence (APORs).
“Medyo daghan na atong units. Duna mi projection nga sayo-sayo mahuman dili kaabtan og December siguro saka daghan na bitaw atong gi-accommodate. Dayon sakto pod na siya para duna po’y time nga mokoan sa ilang payouts,” said Montealto.
(We already have enough units. We are projecting for the program to already end before December because we now have more than enough units. We also needed time to prepare the payouts.)
Earlier, Montealto said they were targeting 496 public utility vehicles (PUVs) to participate in phase two of the Libreng Sakay and service contracting program, which started on September 16.
READ: LTFRB-7 targets 496 PUVs to ply under ‘Libreng Sakay’
The regional director said that this was predetermined based on the allocated budget of P356 million for Central Visayas.
Just like the first phase that was implemented from April to June this year, buses are paid P82.50 per kilometer while modernized jeepneys and other PUJs are paid P52.50 per kilometer.
Montealto said that unlike the other regional offices that already already consumed their allocation for the program’s phase two, LTFRB-7 still has more than enough funds to pay all its obligations to its contractors.
And as soon as payments are made and a new allocation is set aside for their 2022 operations, Libreng Sakay Program’s implementation may be expected to resume early next year.
LTFR has proposed a P10 billion budget for the program in 2022.
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