The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has distributed more than P27.1 million in cash subsidy to over 6,000 public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers across the country through its Service Contracting Program.
In the latest data shared by the LTFRB, a total of 6,780 PUV drivers in various regions in the country have so far received the initial cash aid of P4,000 each as of Monday, March 1.
These include drivers of traditional and modernized public utility jeepneys (PUJs) and public utility buses (PUBs) nationwide.
According to the agency, the cash assistance was distributed to the drivers through their Landbank account or their registered e-wallets such as GCash or PayMaya.
The number of driver-beneficiaries of the initial subsidy per region are as follows:
- National Capital Region (NCR): 2,302 traditional PUJ drivers, 392 modern PUJ drivers, 12 PUB drivers
- Region I: 439 traditional PUJ drivers, seven modern PUJ drivers
- Region III: 98 modern PUJ drivers, 36 modern PUJ drivers
- Region IV: 1,029 traditional PUJ drivers, 138 modern PUJ drivers
- Region V: 46 traditional PUJ drivers, 27 modern PUJ drivers
- Region VI: 240 traditional PUJ drivers
- Region VII: 140 PUB Drivers
- Region VIII: seven traditional PUJ drivers, 59 modern PUJ drivers
- Region IX: 271 traditional PUJ drivers
- Region X: 351 traditional PUJ drivers
- Region XI: 22 PUB Drivers
- Region XII: 625 traditional PUJ drivers
- Caraga: 221 traditional PUJ drivers, 34 modern PUJ drivers
- Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR): 254 traditional PUJ drivers, 30 modern PUJ drivers
The LTFRB said that more PUV drivers across the country are set to receive the cash subsidy under the program in the coming days.
For drivers who already received the initial subsidy, they were reminded to log in to the Service Contracting Driver App through go.sakay.ph/driver for every transit to qualify for an additional weekly subsidy.
Different rates per kilometer have been set by the Board for different kinds of PUVs.
Drivers or operators of traditional and modern public utility jeepneys (PUJs) will get P11 per kilometer, while drivers or operators of passenger buses will get P23.10 per kilometer.
Some P5.58 billion has been allotted for the project's mplementation under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or the "Bayanihan 2".
It aims to help drivers who have been severely impacted by the pandemic to cover for their everyday operational expenses such as gasoline and "boundary".
Under this, the government through the Department of Transportation and LTFRB will provide payouts for public transportation services where PUV operators and drivers will be given a performance-based subsidy according to vehicle-kilometers traveled and compliance with performance indicators.