INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The head of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority on Wednesday asked for an eight-percent fare cut for provincial buses coming from Cavite and Batangas in an attempt to ease the impact of the first centralized bus terminal system on the commuters’ purses.
MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino went to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board office in Quezon City on Wednesday afternoon to file the petition himself, ahead of the opening of the 1.4-hectare Southwest Interim Transport Terminal at the Uniwide reclamation area in Parañaque on August 6. Buses will use the SITT free of charge.
The petition seeks an eight-percent reduction in the amount of the transport fares of bus companies affected by the integrated transport project, thereby bringing down the minimum fare from Cavite to the SITT by P2.
“(R)educing the current bus fares by 8 percent would only amount to a fraction of what they could save every month or year by subscribing to the integrated terminal scheme,” Tolentino, a lawyer by profession, said in a six-page petition.
According to the MMDA, provincial buses renting terminals within Metro Manila pay as much as P2.88 million in a year. Bus companies would save at least P2.9 million pesos in their operational expenses as soon as the SITT becomes operational.
“The savings the bus companies would get from using the new terminal should be translated to a fare reduction,” Tolentino told reporters on Wednesday.
The SITT is the first phase of the grand plan to put up three provincial bus terminals as mentioned by President Aquino in his State of the Nation Address and decongest the major thoroughfares in the metropolis, particularly EDSA where most of the provincial bus terminals are located.
The other two temporary terminals will be built near the Trinoma Mall in Quezon City for buses coming from the north, and at the Filinvest area in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, for buses also from the south.
The move of the MMDA was perceived positively by 17 out of 23 mayors of Cavite who threw their support behind the MMDA chief who is a former Tagaytay mayor.
In a meeting with Tolentino at the MMDA office in Makati City, members of the Cavite Mayors’ League signed a manifesto expressing their full support to the project.
“We will relay to our constituents that this terminal project is a great plan… Our commuters will be safe transferring from one bus to another,” Enrico Alvarez, mayor of Noveleta and president of the Cavite Mayors’ League, said.
Alvarez noted that the MMDA will finally get rid of colorum buses that are competing with duly-franchised buses.
The terminal, located at Uniwide reclamation area, can handle 955 passenger buses plying Cavite and Batangas provinces a day.
Bus passengers, however, said that there would be additional costs in their commute even if the bus fares are cut by 8 percent.
Catherine Kaiklian, a 21-year-old resident of Imus, Cavite, said a P2- difference in her transportation expenses daily would be big.
“This project is okay with me as long as we are not paying more,” Kaiklian, who travels to Ayala by bus everyday to go to her work in an insurance company, said.
She spends P33 for her trip from a terminal in Imus to Ayala in Makati City via air-conditioned bus. If the plan pushes through on August 6, she will have to pay P25 for the bus fare from Imus to the SITT in Uniwide and another P12 from Uniwide to Ayala.
Thus, even if the bus fare is reduced from P25 to P23, commuters working in Ayala must shell out additional P4 in their commute back and forth.
Sought for his reaction, Narcisco Leyran of the Cavite-Batangas Transport Cooperative, said they would not oppose the fare cut for as long as their use of the new terminal will remain free.
Tolentino promised that the stay of the bus companies at the temporary terminal would be free of charge “as long as I am here at the MMDA.”
The MMDA has been spending at least P1 million monthly for rent of the lot where the P24-million terminal stands.
Earlier, a commuters’ group National Center for Commuter Safety and Protection (NCCSP) opposed the MMDA plan saying it would lengthen their travel time of commuters and make their daily trip more expensive.
The commuter group estimated that more than 4.5 million commuters stand to be affected by the centralized bus terminal system, especially those from outlying provinces like Bulacan, Laguna, Batangas and Cavite.