The Department of Transportation (DOTr) should make sure that everything goes smoothly with the planned resumption of the "Libreng Sakay" or free ride program with passenger busses this year.
Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte made this call after Department of Budget Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman confirmed that there was a P1.285-billion budget in the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA) for the DOTr’s Service Contracting Program (SCP) for Libreng Sakay,.
Until December 31, 2022, the program provided free bus rides on the EDSA Carousel route from Manila Central University (MCU) in Caloocan City to Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX) in Parañaque City.
“The DOTr must see to it that the LTFRB (Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) fast-tracks the documentation process, including the contract-signing with the two bus consortiums—ES Transport & Partners Consortium and Mega Manila Consortium Corp.—participating in Libreng Sakay, so this project on free bus rides can be restarted soon enough for the benefit of ordinary commuters in Metro Manila,” Villafuerte said.
The National Unity Party (NUP) president also asked the DOTr to work closely with the DBM on the early restart of the Libreng Sakay, which was temporarily halted due to budget woes.
Moreover, Villafuerte asked DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista to “lobby Malacañan Palace or DBM to provide a supplemental budget for SCP so the DOTr, through the LTFRB, can carry out Libreng Sakay till end-December this year, given estimates by transport officials that the available outlay funder the 2023 national budget is enough only to provide free bus rides along EDSA for six months".
“With the rate of commodity price hikes in December rising at its fastest in 14 years, it is incumbent upon the DOTr to work closely with the DBM on speeding up the paperwork needed to restart Libreng Sakay as well as the release of the 2023 funds intended for SCP, so the government can continue offering free bus rides in Metro Manila, more so with the elevated, mostly imported, inflation, hounding our people into the new year,” Villafuerte said.