LTFRB to welcome petitions suspending P2 taxi fare hike

THE regional office of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board-10 (LTFRB-10) is ready to receive any request that would exempt the city’s taxi drivers and operators from applying the additional charges to their passengers.

If the city’s legislators, commuters and the transport sector can draw up a petition so that the additional charges to the regular taxi fare could not be implemented, LTFRB-10 regional director Aminoden Guro said he will welcome such initiative.

Guro was reacting to a news report stating that City Councilor Teodulfo Lao Jr., chairman of the public utilities committee, has complained about the new charges and accused the agency of implementing the new rates without holding public consultations.

For his part, Guro said prior to the increase in taxi fare, a series of consultations was held which was attended by representatives from all sectors

involved, including a consumer group.

He said the petition was filed in 2012 but was approved by the LTFRB board only in 2017. The last taxi fare increase was in 2010.

After the approval of the new tariff, Guro said he called all the taxi operators in Cagayan de Oro for a meeting so the LTFRB decision could be implemented in the city.

But Guro said he would gladly endorse any petition coming from the various sectors in the city to the LTFRB central office.

“I will recommend it (petition). It will then depend on the decision of the (LTFRB board),” he said.

Guro said it’s up to the petitioners if they want a discount in the total fare or if they want the P2 additional per-minute charge scrapped.

“Whatever is agreeable to all, I’ll forward it the [LTFRB] board,” he added, referring to any petition the proponents might draw up.

Since the decision of the LTFRB board to implement the P13.50 per kilometer and P2 extra charge has already been in effect, Guro said the agency’s decision makers can issue a “supplement decision” that would cater to the petitioners’ demand.

As these extra charges have already been programmed into the taxis’ meters through a calibration, he said another move would be to give passengers a flat discount from the total fare they will be paying.

Guro cited the situation in Baguio City where the LTFRB declared a flagdown rate of P35 owing to the fact that the taxis there use diesel fuel instead of gasoline and that drivers don’t need to use their unit’s airconditioner due to the area’s cold climate.

The regional director added he will also into complaints from passengers of drivers who intentionally stall their taxis in the traffic jam just so they could charge more.

Any violation that taxi drivers or operators have committed has a corresponding penalty, he added.