This is just in. They're back on the road. Commuters welcome the provincial buses operation, especially that many of the businesses are now on a face-to-face mode.
Yesterday was the first day since the two-year old pandemic the provincial buses were allowed to service the consumers through their respective terminals, but on a limited engagement and on a daily basis, a special permit is required.
However, from what I’ve heard from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), the Department of Transportation (DoTr) and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the operations of provincial buses will not be that easy as a breeze.
Based from their actions, concerned authorities are at loggerheads. It seems that LTFRB and the DoTr are overriding the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infection (IATF) allowing the “full seating capacity” of public transportation with Metro Manila under Alert Level 1. IATF has broader powers to implement rules and regulations to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Buses and trucks are alike. Just like the delivery truck ban, provincial buses are given the dead window hour of between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. to use their terminals. Dispatches outside of these hours must be done through the common terminal in Bocaue, Bulacan for those servicing Northern Luzon and in Sta. Rosa, Laguna for the south.
Any infraction is tantamount to colurom operations in spite of their franchise and the operators and owners will be slapped with monetary penalty from a range of P6,000 to as much as P10,000. MMDA has the police power to enforce the order of the higher ups.
The use of the two terminals is not without cause, both to the owners/operators and the commuting public. Apart from the tremendous inconvenience to the passengers due to multiple transfers to city buses or vans and difficulty of moving cargoes, owners will have to shell out P100,000 a month per parking slot in the common terminal in the north, the Philippine Arena, owned and operated by Iglesia ni Cristo, in Bulacan. The more slots, the more costly it is.
On top of the monthly payment, entry per bus will cost P400.00. Simple arithmetic shows that on a daily basis with the dispatch/entry of 10 buses per franchisee, the terminal owner will be earning P4,000. And with 10 franchisees, it’s a windfall of P40,000 daily.
And should the bus operators decide to put up a ticketing teller on the site, they will have to dig deep into their already hemorrhaging pockets for an additional P15,000.
Simply put, provincial bus operators will be ferrying passengers using the common terminal at an “astronomical cost.” The two-year pandemic has brought them down to their knees and whatever hope that they could recoup what they lost as the economy opens seems farfetched.
I can understand the government’s earnest effort in declogging this iconic thoroughfare. The snarl in traffic costs billions of pesos in lost man-hours, but solving a problem by creating a new one doesn’t do us any good. It’s shouldn’t be a zero-sum game.
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