Reduce loan-interest for PUV modernization, Poe asks govt

SENATOR Grace Poe pressed government last Tuesday to reduce to 4 percent the loan interests for public utility vehicles (PUV) modernization in a bid to “lessen the financial burden of operators and drivers.”

Poe, who chairs the Senate’s franchise-granting Committee on Public Services, prodded the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to further cut the interest rate on the loans.

“If we want to really help our public transport sector transition to PUV modernization, all support must be extended to our operators and drivers who have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic,” says Poe.

At a Public Services Committee hearing to tackle Senate Bill 867 embodying the proposed Just and Humane PUV Modernization Act, a leader of a group of drivers and operators said they cannot afford to borrow because of the 6-percent interest rate and the length of the loan term.

Danilo Yumul, chairman of the Confederation of Drivers and Operators in Central Luzon, told Senators that even before the pandemic, drivers could not afford the P40,000 monthly payment for the new PUV, adding: more so after lockdown measures were imposed.

We’re not a liability; we’re assets, Yumul said as he informed the Senate panel that they have not received any subsidy from the government for its PUV modernization program.

Poe asked Yumul and other stakeholders to furnish the committee the same letter outlining their concerns that they will submit to the

LTFRB. The solon proposed that the 6-percent interest rate could still be reduced and that the 2-percent reduction can serve as “subsidy” for drivers and operators.

“Lahat po ng mga hinihingi ninyo i-submit ninyo po ’yung sulat sa amin, ’yung ibibigay niyo kay Chairman (Martin B.) Delgra (3rd). Katulad nga kasi 6 percent na interes, mataas pa ’yun, pwede pang babaan,” Poe said. [All your requests in that letter; please submit the letter to us, the one you will give to Delgra. The six-percent interest, it’s still high; it can still be reduced.]

Once enacted into law, SB 867 mandates government to provide financial assistance of not less than 10 percent of the price per unit, with an additional provision that the interest rate on loan amortization should also not exceed four percent diminishing annual interest, considering the nature of PUV services.