Transport body mulls return to P40 taxi flag-down rate
Taxi drivers wait for passengers. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/Richard Reyes
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is considering to revert the flag-down rate of taxis nationwide to P40 over rising oil prices.
In an interview with Radyo Inquirer Friday, LTFRB Chair Winston Ginez said the board is carefully studying proposals to rescind the recent decision to roll back the flag-down rate.
“Fuel prices are currently rising, that’s why we are looking at it,” he said. “We will also review the considerations why we reduced the flag-down rate, and if there’s a need for an increase, the LTFRB will decide on that,” Ginez said in Filipino.
Ginez also emphasized that the recent flag-down rate decrease that took effect last March 9 was only provisional—the same reason why taxi meters were not recalibrated.
READ: Taxi flag down rate rolled back to P30
“Our standard here is going to be the price of gasoline at the time when we decided to reduce the flag-down rate,” he added.
Citing worsening traffic conditions, unstable oil prices, and high cost of living, taxi operators have decried the recent rollback as “unreasonable.”
READ: Provisional rollback on taxi flag-down rate ‘unreasonable’ –taxi operators
But Ginez argued that operators are not directly affected by the flag-down rate cut as they did not reduce their boundary fee, either.
‘‘Sila po ang nagrereklamo dito pero ang mga operator po ay hindi apektado dito dahil hindi rin naman sila nagtaas o nagbaba ng kanilang mga boundary. So ang talagang kausap po natin dito ay yung mga driver na sila ang bumabalikat ng pagtaas o pagbaba ng gasolina dahil hindi naaapektuhan ang boundary. ‘Yan nga po ang kanilang hinihiling, sana ang mga operator ay magbaba rin ng kanilang boundary kapag bumababa ang gasolina para pantay,’’ Ginez explained.
(They are the ones complaining, but operators are not really affected here as their boundary fees were just maintained. We are talking to the drivers because they are the ones who shoulder oil price hikes. In fact, they are also asking for reduced boundary fee when fuel prices decrease for equality.) AU
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