CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Federation of Motorela Drivers and Operators in this city has appealed to the government to fast-track the release of their fuel subsidy.
Paul Cempron, federation chairman, said he has coordinated the list of beneficiaries to appropriate offices in the city government a few months ago but they have yet to receive the P1,000 subsidy.
“I have been wondering why there is a delay. Now, our only request is to hasten the distribution of the fuel subsidy so that our tricycle drivers can use it. It would be a big help for them,” Cempron said in the vernacular.
A motorela driver said the subsidy would help pay for fuel and augment his daily income.
“It’s a small amount of money but a huge help in our daily fuel expenses that would also help improve our daily income,” he said.
He earns P700 to P800 per day driving the public transportation. However, he could only bring more or less P500 as he would spend around P60 to P70 for the fuel and P250 for boundary.
The Business Permitting and Licensing Division of the City Treasurer’s Office said there are 2,476 registered motorelas that operate here.
Rezza Mae Tolinero, information officer of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), said that they have already submitted the list of beneficiaries to their central office in Quezon City.
The DILG is tasked to submit the list of beneficiaries to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Central Office on East Ave., Quezon City, the in-charge agency of the distribution.
In a phone interview on Monday, Sept. 12, LTFRB Chairperson Cheloy Garafil said that they started distributing the subsidy last month.
However, Garafil said they only received an initial list from the DILG Central Office in Quezon City which only had 16,000 beneficiaries as the information of many recipients did not match their GCash accounts, the online wallet where the subsidy will be paid.
The LTFRB only distributed subsidy to 11,000 beneficiaries as the remaining still has error in their information.
Garafil said there are over 618,000 beneficiaries nationwide.
The LTFRB asked DILG to submit at least half of the total beneficiaries before the end of September to enable them to start the distribution to other beneficiaries.
Garafil assured all tricycle drivers and operators nationwide that they strongly collaborated with DILG to hasten the distribution.
“We devised a way in order to hasten the distribution. We already coordinated with GCash so that GCash would be the one to provide us the list, based on the list from DILG of verified GCash accounts and matching of accounts,” she said.
Cempron told the LTFRB that many tricycle drivers in this city do not know how to use GCash, prompting them to choose another option through Landbank.
Garafil said that they can choose the bank option because they do not need to open an account. They only need two valid IDs to claim the subsidy in the bank through over-the-counter method.
A motorela is a variant of a motorized tricycle Northern Mindanao, particularly in this city and Bukidnon.