• CHERYL G. CRUZ
While the P1 provisional fare hike can provide slight relief for traditional and modern public utility jeepney drivers and operators, the urgent need is for the government to repeal the Oil Deregulation Law, a transport group said Oct. 4.
“The Marcos government should focus on holding oil companies accountable for overcharging and should immediately junk the Oil Deregulation Law instead of shifting the weight of surging fuel prices to drivers and commuters,” Piston, or the Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide, said.
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Tuesday approved a P1 provisional fare increase for PUJs nationwide, starting on Oct. 8. The minimum fare in traditional jeeps will become P13, and P15 for air-conditioned PUJs.
But Piston national president Mody Floranda said “the P1 fare increase becomes worthless because it’s just being consumed by the oil companies amid the weekly increase in oil prices.”
He said the government should be looking at the root cause of the problem instead of merely addressing its symptoms.
The group said that Republic Act 8479, or the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998, “failed to deliver its original promise of lowering fuel prices through an unrestricted trade”.
Piston said the law has since afforded oil companies the freedom to raise fuel prices without significant government oversight.
“The government’s role should not be limited to merely announcing when companies will increase or decrease prices. In over two decades of the law, it has been proven that the government needs to be more proactive in regulating oil prices,” Floranda said, adding the government “can protect the interests of both drivers and commuters without compromising their financial stability, especially in these times of unprecedented cost of living crisis”.
LTFRB chairperson, Atty. Teofilo Guadiz III, said the fare increase is provisional since they are still deciding on the petitions filed by several transport groups, one of which is a P5 fare hike for the first four kilometers, and an additional P1 each succeeding kilometer, following more than two months of nonstop oil price increases. | CGC
