ADVERTISEMENT
Money
Piston seeks continued gov’t aid during partial operations of PUVs
By JOVILAND RITA,GMA News Transport group Piston on Sunday suggested the government continue providing financial support to drivers even if partial operations of public utility vehicles amid the enhanced community quarantine were allowed.
Interviewed on Dobol B sa News TV, Piston National President George San Mateo pointed out that the proposal of limiting the passenger capacity to 30 percent would badly affect the income of drivers.
“Kapag pinayagan nang tumakbo ang ating mga PUV, lalo na mga jeep, at reduced capacity lang, lalo na kung 30 percent lang, kailangang tuloy tuloy lang ang ayuda ng gobyerno,” San Mateo said.
“Kung hindi magbibigay ng ayuda, para i-compensate ‘yung losses niya (driver) sa (limited) passenger capacity, ang solusyon lang dyan magtaas ng pamasahe,” he added.
However, increasing the fare also unacceptable to San Mateo as this would be a hard blow to workers already badly affected by the ECQ's impact.
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) was looking at the possible resumption of operations of public transportation
ADVERTISEMENT
According to the DOTr, the reduced capacity was necessary so that passengers could observe social distancing inside PUVs.
San Mateo argued that if a driver used to earn P400 a day, a 70 percent decrease in customers was a big loss.
Also, he lamented that most PUV drivers had not yet received their social amelioration aid from the government.
As of April 21, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board said that 20,164 PUV drivers out of 200,000 targeted beneficiaries had claimed the financial aid of up to P8,000.
"Halos tirik na ‘yung mga mata ng PUV drivers natin. Forty-three na araw na naka-lockdown at hanggang ngayon, wala pa ring natatatanggap,” San Mateo said.
Due to this, San Mateo doubted that the national government could even provide assistance for drivers during the partial operations of PUVs considering this pace of COVID-19 aid distribution amid the emergency situation. — DVM, GMA News