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Poe to DOTr: Explain Beep card scarcity
By HANA BORDEY,GMA Integrated News Senator Grace Poe has urged the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to shed light on reports of a Beep card shortage in Metro Manila's major railway systems.
"The Department of Transportation should explain the scarcity of Beep cards that burdens our people using trains," said Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services.
"The time spent lining up for every single-journey ticket is a moment wasted for our already weary commuters," she added.
The DOTr was also told to explain reports suggesting that commuters may have resorted to purchasing the stored value cards (SVC) online at a "steeper price."
"The lack of Beep cards is a step backward to our goal to digitalize our transportation payment scheme as a safer and convenient mode," she said.
"We have allocated billions for the development and modernization of our railway system. Our people must feel the fruits of their hard-earned taxes."
AF Payments Inc. (AFPI), the concessionaire contracted by the government to supply Beep cards, explained there was a global shortage of the chips used for the smart cards.
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“What was told to us was that first quarter to second quarter, we will be able to stabilize. We've already made our advances. We're taking inventory risks. We're now actually ordering more,” AFPI president and CEO JJ Moreno said in Maki Pulido’s report on “24 Oras” on Friday.
Moreno also said the supplies being sold online are only 1% of their inventory and was due to the requests of some of their customers.
“We thought that 1% would last us through the entire year but I think we will have to stop,” he added.
In August, the DOTr warned the public of a possible shortage of SVC passenger train cards.
The DOTr had said that it was “addressing the looming Beep card shortage due to global chip supply chain problems by finding alternative ways to solve the expected demand for Beep cards when the rail transit system becomes fully normalized.”
Transportation Undersecretary Cesar Chavez earlier said that the DOTr was expecting the supply of SVCs to normalize by the first quarter of 2023. — VBL, GMA Integrated News