The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) assured on Tuesday, July 19, commuters that the government has sufficient funds to cover the free bus rides in Metro Manila, through the EDSA Carousel, until September this year.
But for now, LTFRB Chairperson Cheloy Garafil said their focus is on paying the government’s balance to the two bus companies which secured the contract for the EDSA Carousel program.
The government, through the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is paying P74 to P79 million per week to EZ Transport and MMCC Transport for the deployment of buses along EDSA.
The non-payment of the government's balance to the EDSA Carousel operations is seen as the reason behind the shortage of buses transorting commuters along EDSA.
Ideally, a total of 440 buses should be deployed for the EDSA Carousel during rush hours but the delay in the payout forced the operators to cut the deployment to around 220 buses.
This resulted in thousands of commuters stranded in the past weeks, especially during Monday morning and Friday afternoon rush hours.
“We started the payout at Week Six and so far, we have already paid for part of the Week 10. We told them (bus companies) not to rush us in paying because we are doing our best to ensure an updated payout for them,” said Garafil in a press briefing.
So far, the LTFRB has already paid around P659 million to the bus companies and it vowed to settle the remaining amount of more or less 300 million before the end of July.
As a result, Garafil said they have already secured a commitment from the bus firms of deployment of sufficient number of buses for the EDSA Carousel.
“We are confident and we’re relying on the words of our consortia that operate the busway that they will keep their word to maximize the deployment of 440 vehicles especially during hours,” said Garafil.
As she assured that the government has sufficient funds to finance the EDSA Carousel until Sept. 6, Garafil said the the DOTR is now coordinating with the Department of Budget and Management to look for funds to finance the program until the end of 2022.
This, after President Bongbong Marcos has committed to continue the EDSA Carousel program until December 2022.
Garafil, however, said the free bus ride will only be along EDSA and that there is no current proposal to expand the program to other urban areas like Cebu and Davao cities.