By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

LAST week, I was invited by the sub-committee of the Technical Working Group of the National Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) as a stakeholder in the discussion on whether or not to rescind the contentious provision in its Resolution No. 101.

The provision in Res. No. 101 being protested by families in Pangasinan is the requirement being imposed by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board on bus operators plying specifically, routes in the province to and from Metro Manila to load and unload only at the North Luzon Express Terminal (NLET) in Bocaue, Bulacan, invoking the IATF resolution as its basis!

Apparently, the IATF read our column item last week about the outdated provision that was adopted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to be invoked by LTFRB at this time when the Alert Level 2 is already the pandemic status in Pangasinan and in Metro Manila.

The continued imposition has prevented bus operators to operate Pangasinan routes because of two primary conditions cited by LTFRB but not mentioned in the IATF resolution. Effectively,

1. Pangasinan passengers from terminals in the province will have to transfer to another bus in Bocaue to continue their travel to Metro Manila.
2. Bus companies will have to pay NLET as much as P1-M monthly for the use of its facilities for loading and unloading passengers.

Well, the bus companies can live without LTFRB’s unfair and unilateral conditions that only serve the financial interests of the owners of NLET.

Consequently, the bus companies that used to operate direct trips to Metro Manila and v.v., have already opted to bring Pangasinenses to either Tarlac or Dau where passengers can board buses for their continuing trip to Metro Manila, notwithstanding the inconvenience to passengers. Besides, under LTFRB’s new policy, buses and passengers have no other option but to cut the trips into two. Given the agency’s terms that only seek to benefit the owners of NLET, buses and passengers are forced to live with the inconvenience minus the exorbitant costs to the bus companies and added fares for the Bocaue portion.

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NO WORD FOR PASSENGERS’ PLIGHT. So, here’s what happened in that IATF consultation meeting with all main stakeholders, MMDA, DOTr/LTFRB / NLET/BUS COMPANIES  DOH/ and passengers/commuters.  

I cited mainly:

1. The health concerns of the IATF resolution at the height of the pandemic have already been overtaken by the prevailing Alert Level 2 in Pangasinan and Metro Manila, and by the commitment of both bus companies and the provincial government to strictly enforce the minimum health protocol dictated by IATF.

2. The condition imposed by LTFRB requiring passengers to transfer buses to continue their travel citing the IATF resolution is completely irrelevant to health concerns of IATF.

3. The inconvenience imposed and the anxiety suffered by Pangasinenses range from longer travel time, anxiety waiting for a bus that will accommodate them and their luggage and boxes, added physical difficulties to carry to their baggage and hand carry from one bus to another.

4. The growing public suspicion that government officials have pecuniary interests in the NLET operations with the hefty monthly rentals that bus companies are expected to pay.

In response, LTFRB and MMDA only cited the need to decongest EDSA, and need to adhere to the law passed in 2014 for the establishment of Integrated Terminal Exchange. Not a word to alleviate needless inconvenience and added burden to passengers for loading and unloading only at the NLET.

NLET said it has suspended imposing the monthly fees, but it didn’t say it would permanently scrap it. This is clearly simply a ploy to lure bus companies to use NLET but offered nothing to alleviate passengers’ anguish. (LTFRB has taken the issue one step further: It will only issue permits if the bus company submits an undertaking that they will use the NLET). How’s that for legal extortion?

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UNFAIR TO  INC. What I find pathetic is our provincial board’s view of the issue. For some obvious political reasons, they conveniently choose to simply blame bus companies for their constituents’ anguish with no bus trips to Metro Manila , v.v.

Why they cannot see (or refuse to see) that the controversy is triggered by a national government policy affecting public interests and welfare. Yet as our elected provincial officials representing their constituents, it is their duty to elevate issues and problems of their constituents needing new and urgent attention to the government policy-making body. And fight for their constituents’ welfare!

Ironically, while the board members hail the declaration of the Alert Level 2 by the IATF,  why they cannot provide the impetus with which the lost benefits can be restored, is beyond me.

Is it because they were told by LTFRB that NLET owners are reportedly the Iglesia ni Cristo?? Kaya bahala na si Batman? But even assuming that it’s the INC that owns NLET, surely INC, which has thousands of members in Pangasinan, will not want to be the cause of Pangasinenses’ unwanted and undeserved inconvenience and anxiety caused by LTFRB’s policy.

Both the  bus companies and the INC do not deserve to be blamed for LTFRB’s discriminatory policy that acts against Pangasinenses.

The bus companies and INC are for the convenience of Pangasinenses, but it seems the provincial board members are not aligned with them in purpose?

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POLITICS VS. CHRISTMAS.  May 2022 elections are still some 4 months away while Christmas Day is just six days away.

Millions of Catholics have made the 9-day Simbang Gabi a devotion to the image of a Holy Family, the journey of Virgin Mary and St. Joseph to Bethlehem and the birth of Baby Jesus in Bethlehem. It is all in the spirit of Christmas.

But this is not what appears to be a season of joy for Archbishop Soc Villegas.  He’d rather talk politics and the 2022 elections in his homilies.

Is it about his frustration that the Mr. Duterte is still around, or his eagerness to see VP Leni Robredo, and not Ferdinand Marcos Jr.  to ascend as his next President? 

Last Wednesday, instead of giving the faithful in the archdiocese a sense of joy by recalling what Christmas should mean to families, he chose to talk about “St. Matthew, the writer of the Family Tree of Jesus Christ,” and how the faithful should discern the right presidential candidates who deserve to be voted upon by Catholics.

At the rate he’s is going, I won’t ever be surprised if he will use the St. John Cathedral  again as venue for political rally in support of the candidacy of VP Leni. (He did this during the 2016 presidential elections. He gathered priests, nuns, teachers and students of catholic schools in the archdiocese to listen to then VP aspirant Leni’s who flew in by helicopter and flew out after her 10-minute campaign speech).

Will the cathedral grounds soon be adorned with pink ribbons?

Father Soc is one member of the clergy who refuses to read Mark 12:17 – “Render to Caesar unto things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 

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