Senator Nancy Binay on Sunday called out the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for becoming the “single-biggest job stranglers” since the COVID-19 pandemic started in the country.

Binay expressed her disappointment at the two state agencies following the Commission on Audit’s (COA) findings that only one percent of the P5.58-billion funds allocated for public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers and operators who were supposed to be the beneficiaries of the Service Contracting Program.

The amount unspent by the LTFRB will go back to government coffers, following the advice of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

"Mahigit nang isang taong pinagkakaitan ng ayuda ang mga kapatid nating mga namamasada (They deprived our PUV drivers of financial aid for more than one year). The DOTr and the LTFRB are invisible, and have become the single-biggest job stranglers since the start of the pandemic,” Binay said in a statement.

“Bigyan naman sila kahit konting dignidad sana. Tinanggalan na ng pasada, pinagkaitan pa ng ayuda (They should be treated with some dignity. They’ve been left out of any income, they were also deprived of any cash aid),” the senator lamented.

Binay said she is disappointed by the lack of government effort to seriously fast-track the implementation of the SCP program for public utility drivers, saying the transportation authorities should make the claiming process easier for everyone in the transportation sector.

Under the program, beneficiaries include families of drivers of public utility vehicles (PUVs), such as public utility jeepneys (PUJ), UV Express (UVE), public utility buses (PUB), point-to-point buses (P2P), taxis, transport network vehicle services (TNVS), school transport, and motorcycle taxis.

“It’s been more than a year but the distribution of much-needed cash assistance has hardly improved. I am dismayed that both the national and department levels until now refuse to prioritize our jeepney and bus drivers,” the senator said.

“Aside from losing their livelihood, they made the process of claiming their cash benefits even harder,” she pointed out.

Binay said the LTFRB’s negligence and harassment is unacceptable: “the P5.58-billion for the Service Contracting Program would have helped thousands of families of those in the transport sector who struggle to make ends meet during these hard times.”

“If the DOTr and LTFRB have their hearts in the right place, di nila matitiis na makita ang mga jeepney driver na nagmamalimos sa kalsada, (they wouldn’t bear seeing jeepney drivers begging in the streets),” the lawmaker noted.