Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday called on concerned government agencies anew to ramp up the distribution of fuel subsidy under the Pantawid Pasada Program to targeted beneficiaries as oil companies impose a new round of fuel price hike this week.

Gatchalian noted it is already the end of March and the next scheduled release of funds under the program is set to be released on April.

Yet, from the outset, the Senate Committee on Energy chief said this may not even materialize as the amount of fuel subsidy released by the government is not even half of what should have been already distributed.

The first tranche of the subsidies covering December 2021, January, and February 2022 was supposed to be released this month while the second tranche covering March, April, and May will be released in April.

“May nakalaan namang pondo para dito. Sana ay madaliin na ang pamimigay nito upang maibsan ang pasanin ng ating mga public utility drivers (There’s funding available for this. I hope the government expedites its distribution to alelviate the burden of our public utility drivers (PUVs)” Gatchalian said.

So far, only 115,000 PUV drivers and operators out of the 377,443 beneficiaries have each received P6,500 fuel subsidy which is good for three months.

The government doubled its budget for the fuel subsidy program to P5-billion from the initial P2.5-billion to cushion soaring pump prices.

“Gaya ng mga jeepney drivers, ang mga namamasada at nagtatrabaho ring tricycle drivers at delivery service riders ay nangangailangan ng ayuda dahil sila rin ay apektado ng pagtataas ng presyo ng krudo (Like our jeepney drivers, our tricycle drivers and delivery service riders are also in need of financial aid because they too are affected by the oil price increases),” Gatchalian said.

“Sana ay gawing agaran ang pamimigay ng Pantawid Pasada sa mga dapat makinabang nito (I hope the government expedites the release of the Pantawid Pasada funds to the beneficiaries),” the re-electionist senator said.

Earlier, the senator called out the Department of Transportation (DOTr) over the delays in the processing of the distribution of fuel subsidies to tricycle drivers and delivery service riders.

He reiterated his call on the DOTr and local government units (LGUs) to fast track the distribution of fuel subsidies to 113,000 tricycle drivers and delivery services who are also beneficiaries under the Pantawid Pasada Program.