DOE starts distribution of Pantawid Pampasada cards
SOME 3,000 fuel-subsidy cards worth P3.4 million were distributed on May 18 to jeepney operators in Pangasinan by the Department of Energy, courtesy of the national government’s Pantawid Pampasada program.
Each card grants P1,050 worth of discount to a jeepney operator for purchases of diesel from any gas station.
The full discount, issued as a subsidy to mitigate rising fuel cost, can be drawn at one time or gradually over a period of five years.
DOE Undersecretary Jose Layug Jr., Alliance of Concerned Transport Organization (ACTO) headed by Efren de Luna and the Alliance of United Transport Organization-Province-wide (AUTOPRO) headed by Benny Aquino, led the card distribution at the Tondaligan Park and at the city hall in Dagupan.
Aquino said 3,000 were listed as beneficiaries from Pangasinan alone.
Dagupan Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez and Councilor Jesus Canto, acting mayor and vice mayor respectively, joined the distribution activity, the second in the country after the initial distribution in Metro Manila.
Layug explained Pangasinan is currently one among with the biggest number of jeepneys, and its transport groups were among the first to submit a listing of the franchise holders.
TRICYCLE DRIVERS
A separate distribution will be set for tricycle drivers, Layug said, and apologized for his department’s inability to distribution cards to them simultaneously.
The government targets to distribute 220,000 cards nationwide but the DOE, spending a total of P450 million for the Pantawid Pampasada program, is capable of releasing only 4,500 daily.
P300 million are allocated for jeepneys and another P150 million for tricycles.
After Pangasinan, DOE will distribute the discount cards to the jeepney operators in Davao, Cebu and Iloilo.
“We are not saying that this is the solution to the problem of frequent fuel price increases. But this one can really be of help to the members of the transport sectors who are buying fuel every day,” Layug said.
The cost of fuel has gone down during the past few weeks, giving the fuel subsidy card holders added benefit.–LM
DAGUPAN TRICYCLES AWAIT FUEL
What about us?
This was frustration expressed by some 2,300 operators of motorized tricycles from Dagupan City after seeing their counterparts, jeepney operators, receive their Pantawid Pampasada fuel subsidy from the government.
But even as they are made to wait, Local Government Operations Officer Roderick Daois said unlike the jeepney operators, the tricycle operators will only receive P150 each as their fuel subsidy.
Jeepney operators received discount cards entitling then to P1,050 discount from any gasoline station in Dagupan and Pangasinan.
The subsidy was funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) but was coursed through the Department of Interior and Local Government because the public utility vehicles are regulated by local government units.
In Dagupan, the subsidy amount will be distributed to franchised tricycle operators by the city treasurer’s office but only tricycle operators holding franchises from the Sangguniang Panlungsod will be entitled.
No date has been set for the distribution of subsidy to the tricycle operators.
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