Cebu City readies vehicles to help ferry stranded passengers

CEBU CITY – Kaohsiung buses, Ceres buses and Vans-for-Hire (V-Hire) will be placed on standby to help ferry passengers who will be stranded on Monday when transport groups hold a strike to protest the phase-out of 15-year-old public utility vehicles and older.

Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) operations chief Francisco Ouano said the city is ready for the transport strike, which will be headed by Pinag-isang Samahan nga mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston-Cebu). The group expects at least 700 members to join.

“We will start monitoring as early as 4 a.m. If we see stranded passengers in a certain area, we will deploy the vehicles,” Ouano said.

A total of 15 city-owned Kaohsiung buses will be on standby. Those riding these city-owned buses will not pay any fare.

Fifteen Ceres buses and more than 20 V-hires will collect a fixed rate of P10 for each passenger.

Ouano said the city’s preparations were finalized during a meeting with Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board and other stakeholders at city hall on Sunday morning.

He added that the LTFRB granted special permits authorizing buses to ply outside their routes on Monday./rga