LTFRB asked: Return minimum jeepney fare to P10

PESO HIKE? A pending fare hike petition may soon see jeepney passengers paying P1 more, that is, if the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board approves it. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A transport group on Wednesday appealed to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to return the minimum jeepney fare to P10, two months after it was rolled back to P9 amid declining gas prices.

The four-page petition, signed by Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations (Acto) president Efren de Luna and driver-operators Elmer Ergina and Modesto Orcino, was the latest to be filed in the LTFRB which for months had struggled with setting the correct fare rate amid fluctuating oil prices.

The petitioners, however, clarified that they were not asking for a fare hike per se, but for the transport board to recall Resolution No. 91 issued on Dec. 3.

The resolution had ordered a provisional P1 decrease in the minimum fare of P10 for jeepneys plying Metro Manila, Calabarzon and Central Luzon regions. This was after diesel prices dropped to P43.75 per liter from a high of P49.73 in October.

Before that, the LTFRB also issued an Oct. 18, 2018 decision resolving a two-year-old fare hike petition filed by Acto, Land Transportation Organization of the Philippines, Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines, and Pasang Masda by raising the minimum jeep fare from P8 to P10.

The increase, which caused friction among the three-member transport board, was supposedly permanent.

However, the petitioners complained that even before they could start charging passengers the P10 fare, the LTFRB provisionally reduced it to P9.

De Luna said that higher fuel prices due to the tax reform law drove them to demand that the fare rate be returned to P10.