By MARILOU AGUIRRE-TUBURAN | Davao Today
DAVAO CITY A jeepney driver for about thirty years, Leony Trinidal, 59, said drivers are having a hard time with the unabated increase of oil prices. He said that because of this, prices of jeepney spare parts and basic commodities, such as foods, also increase, giving drivers like him a headache.
Trinidal is the president of Sotoda Transport Service Cooperative. He plies the route from Agdao to South Bay in barangay Lapu-lapu. Of the average 500-pesos he earns daily, three-fifths or 300 pesos he spends for the gasoline and a hundred pesos for his boundary or jeepney rental.
“Only about 100 pesos would be left for me and my family,” Trinidal said.
Ruel Doco, secretary of Matina Aplaya-Dumalag Drivers and Operators Association, said the recent increases in jeepney fare is not enough to meet the increase in the prices of oil.
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) approved a
After the implementation of the 50-centavo provisional fare increase in February, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) apporved the one-peso fare increase in July in answer to the clamor of big transport groups.
In October last year, the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) and the Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association in the Philippines (Fejodap) petitioned the government body to increase the fare by one peso to cope with the ten-peso difference in the prices of oil in the last two years.
Prices of oil went up to 36.50 per liter in October last year from only 26.50 pesos in May 2005. Last month, oil prices went up to as much as 51.41 pesos per liter, or 24.91 increase from the May 2005 level.
According to the Transport of Southern Mindanao for Solidarity, Independence and Nationalism (Transmision) computations, a driver who consumes an average of 30 liters per day loses 747.30 pesos in his day’s income compared to the 2005 level. The one-peso fare hike allows the driver to recover 250 pesos of this lost income, if he maintains the average number of passengers in a day. But he still has to contend with the 497.30 pesos deficit.
Doco is married with two children. He said his income from a driving public utility vehicle cannot support his family anymore. “My net income ranges from 150 to 200 pesos per day. Two hundred pesos is the biggest I earn, so far,” he said.
According to the National Statistical Coordination Board, an average family of five in the Davao region needs 782 pesos a day to live decently.
Doco starts his day at dawn and ends at nine in the evening. He said most of his income is spent on gasoline.
But if the 12 percent valued added tax (VAT) on oil will be removed in September this year (from 51.41 pesos to 45.24 pesos), the oil price difference from May 2005 would go down to 18.74 pesos, according to Transmission. Transmission said it will reduce drivers’ loses to 562.20 pesos from the 747.30 pesos with VAT. Though a driver recovers 250 pesos from the one-peso fare increase, he still incurs a deficit of 312.20 pesos per day, according to Transmission.
Doco said he already convinced his wifewho’s suffering from asthmato look for a job so they both can support their family. Their eldest is in high school while their youngest is in elementary.
