BACOLOD City – The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has required public utility jeepneys (PUJ) to secure a special permit as travel restriction in this city were slightly eased under general community quarantine.
Councilor Dindo Ramos, chairman of the city council’s committee on transportation, announced this yesterday following a dialogue with jeepney drivers and operators together with the personnel of the Land Transportation Office and Bacolod Traffic Authority Office.
According to Ramos, PUJs are allowed to accommodate only 50 percent of its seating capacity so that social distancing measures would still be observed.
However, Ramos said, those allowed to operate are only “roadworthy.”
He added that only passengers wearing face mask would be allowed to ride. Jeepney drivers are required to partition the seats of their vehicle with clear plastic dividers to apply physical distancing to minimize the possible transmission of the coronavirus among passengers.
Jessie Ortega, secretary-general of Sentrong Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators ng Negros, underscored the importance of special permit as this would allow them to implement the updated fare matrix.
“It is not easy to get the special permit at the LTFRB because of the procedure to comply with. Only member of the cooperative are allowed getting these permits,” Ortega pointed out.
He explained that about 80 percent of the operators are not members of the cooperative.
“This concern was not tackled during the dialogue with the Committee on Transportation on Tuesday because they only learned the processing for the special permit after the meeting,” Ortega said.
He added that “this is now the biggest problem of the drivers and operators” as he hopes that LTFRB would address this concern./PN
