LTFRB: Makati must get permit to run shuttle service

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Makati’s free shuttle service for MRT passengers bound for the city’s central business district has run into some red tape.

Last April 2, the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) sent Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay a letter, asking the local government to obtain a special permit to operate the service.

Last March 27, the Makati government started deploying two city-owned buses and four coasters to ferry passengers for free from the MRT North Avenue station in Quezon City to the Makati Stock Exchange Building on Ayala Avenue, from 6 to 9 a.m. on weekdays.

The move was in response to the congestion and other recent glitches of the rail transit line which the Makati government viewed as an “emergency situation.”

“We wanted to help ease the suffering of the riders who are mostly employees in Makati companies. It has already affected their productivity,” Binay said in a statement on Friday.

Makati’s six vehicles can ferry a total of 250 passengers in a single trip.

But now: “Please be informed that a special permit must be applied for by the city of Makati if it desires to offer this service to the public on an extended period of time, and not only on a temporary basis,” said the April 2 letter to Binay, signed by LTFRB officer-in-charge and board member Ronaldo F. Corpus.

The letter went on to list the documents the city government needs to submit, including IDs, receipts for the vehicles, insurance papers, a city resolution authorizing the free service, and a filled-out petition form for the special permit for out-of-line public utility bus operations.

The letter said that once all requirements were met, the LTFRB would issue the permits applicable for three months. If the Makati government wants to extend the free service or add vehicles to the cause, Binay was advised to ask for an “extension of the authority to use transport services” from the Department of Transportation and Communications.

Noting the positive public reception to the free service on its first week, Binay said the city would purchase four more buses. Binay had planned to continue the service “on a regular basis, at least while waiting for more viable and long-term solutions to the traffic situation along EDSA.”

But now, “our only appeal is that LTFRB not stop our free shuttle service while we study the requirements they are asking from us,” Binay said.

Binay questioned the applicability of the LTFRB special permit for the free shuttle service. “Our vehicles are city-government vehicles. We do not have a franchise or a line,” he said.

City Administrator Eleno Mendoza explained that the Makati government was of the opinion that it could provide free shuttle services to employees working in the city under the Local Government Code and the Public Service Act.

Mendoza cited Section 13 (a) of the Public Service Act which states that “public services owned and operated by government entities shall not be required to obtain Certificates of Public Convenience.”

“We feel that Makati should not be treated like a private operator and be required to apply for a special permit for out-of-line operation as required by the LTFRB,” Mendoza said.

But he said that if LTFRB’s order was found applicable under review, then the city would comply.

Binay added: “It would be better if those of us in government simply helped each other for the convenience, no matter how small, of the MRT passengers.”

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