Beep cards should be given away for free, says Duterte

MANILA, Philippines — Give Beep cards for free, President Rodrigo Duterte said in a pre-recorded speech that aired on  Monday night.

“That’s just a card. Just give it away for free. Why pay for it? We have been wasting so many billions on corruption, and yet you can’t give that away?” Duterte said in Filipino.

“That’s why I would like to talk to [Transportation] Secretary [Arthur] Tugade because I would like to raise to him the possibility of giving it free,” he added.

Duterte clarified, however, that only the card itself should be free. Commuters would still have to pay for their own load.

Many public transport users complained about the sudden implementation of cashless payments in buses because Beep cards were being for P180 each —  P100 for the card itself and P80 for the initial load.

AF Payments, Inc., the provider of the cashless payment cards, failed to waive the additional cost of the fees for the cards, prompting the Department of Transportation to suspend its mandatory use on the EDSA Busway.

[atm]