Cebu’s TNVS groups decision not to join July 8’s transport holiday hailed

Lawyer Martin Delgra, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chief | Futch Anthony Inso

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Chairman, Lawyer Martin Delgra, has expressed his gratitude to the Transport Network Vehicle Service (TNVS) groups in Cebu for assuring the public that they will not participate in the transport holiday on Monday, July 8.

“O di maayo, nalipay ta nga nakadungog niana,” Delgra said, while describing that Cebuano’s are good at resolving issues by means of dialogue.

(That is good. We are happy to hear that.)

Read more: Cebu TNVS groups won’t join transport holiday on July 8

Delgra visited Cebu earlier today, July 5, to grace two activities, namely: the launching of the Tsuper Iskolar program of the agency in coordination with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) held at the IC3 Convention Center in Cebu City, and the ceremonial printing of RFID and turnover of MV Plates at the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-7 in Subangdaku, Mandaue City.

But despite the assurance of TNVS drivers and operators groups in Cebu that they would not participate in the transport strike, TNVS groups in Cebu are appealing to the government to allow all existing ride-hailing platform units to operate.

Delgra, however, said that he would first have to check with Grab Philippines of how come existing TNVS units in Cebu had reached around 3,000 despite LTFRB’s order to limit its operation to only 1,500 units.

“Mao na akong klaruhon sa Grab kay gilikayan man gani na natong problemaha sa una nga niabot sa 100,000 ang colorum. Mao to atong gisulbad, atong gihan-ay ug gihatagan nato og quota ang Cebu,” he added.

(That is what we would want to clarify with Grab because we tried to avoid that problem we once encountered where the colorum vehicles reached 100,000. That is what we solved and that is why we gave them a quota of vehicles in Cebu.)

Aside from Cebu, TNVS operation in Manila is also pegged at 65,000 units and 250 units in Pampanga.

Some TNVS operators in Cebu are worried that their livelihood might get affected if they would become deactivated, specifically those who were not included in the list which was endorsed by Grab for the processing of their provisional authority (PA) and certificate of public convenience (CPC).

Delgra also belied the allegation that they were implementing unreasonable processes in granting franchise applications.

“Kay ang process flow ana, parehas ra na sa jeep, parehas ra sa taxi, parehas ra sa bus. Parehas ra tanan,” he said.

(The process for that is the same as the process in getting franchise applications of jeepneys, taxis and buses. They are all the same.)

He said that there had been only three essential requirements that LTFRB had been asking applicants to accomplish: First, applicants must be a Filipino citizen; second, their ability to run such business or financial requirement; and lastly, the technical requirements which involves the vehicle unit itself./dbs