V-hire drivers: Move terminal to South Bus

A group of van-for-hire (V-hire) drivers will ask the Cebu City government to transfer the temporary terminal at the Compania Maritima to the South Bus Terminal instead of moving it to a vacant lot near the SM Seaside City Cebu.

“We will appeal to the mayor to transfer us to South Bus Terminal since it is near our passengers. Now, passengers would choose buses over V-hire because our terminal is quite far from them,” Apollo Mendoza, a Cebu City-Moalboal V-hire driver, said in Cebuano yesterday.

Mendoza, who spoke on behalf of the group of Moalboal V-hire drivers headed by his brother, Cyril, said they will meet with Cebu City Administrator Lucelle Mercado this afternoon to convey their request to the mayor.

Mendoza said their group is made up of at least 20 drivers plying the Moalboal-Cebu City route.

He said he was also hoping that the other V-hire drivers plying the other routes would join them in their meeting with the city administrator.

There are at least 200 V-hire drivers using the temporary terminal at a vacant area at the Compania Maritima.

“If the mayor won’t allow us to stay at the South Bus, we’ll just have to find a place. We’ll have to find a way,” Mendoza said in Cebuano.

Mendoza said they were concerned about the transfer to SM Seaside because people have become familiar with the V-hire terminal at the Compania Maritima.

“There are trucks passing by the roads for the project (at Compania Maritima), and it is unsafe for the people there. We are preventing danger from happening,” said Lucelle Mercado, head of Terminal Accreditation Board, of the terminal transfer, referring to  Department of Public Works and Highways’ project at the area.

But Mendoza said the move will cause them to lose passengers and income.

He said they agreed to transfer to Compania Maritima despite the longer waiting time for passengers to fill their vehicles.

Before it would only take 20 minutes to fill their vehicles at the One Citilink, but at the Compania Maritima terminal, it would take at least an hour to fill their vehicles with passengers.

“We could only get a few passengers here. How much more in SM Seaside when there are no jeepney routes there? When we were still in Citilink, in 20 minutes, V-hires are already full especially during summer,” Mendoza said in Cebuano.