The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board on Monday ruled out any shortage of school bus units despite the phaseout of units 15 years old and above.
In an interview, Ariel Enrile Inton, one of the two LTFRB board members, allayed fears of the students and their parents of inadequate number of school service vehicles.
“There can be no shortage. Of the 7,000 school bus units, only 1,000 of them have been phased out,” he told The Standard.
Apart from the compliance of many of the registered school bus operators, Enrile Inton said the application and issuance for a new franchise for the operation of such units is “open.”
“There are other people [operators] who can fill in the vacuum,” he added.
Operators and drivers of school service units, led by Alliance of Concerned Transport Organization president Efren de Luna, earlier claimed only 25 percent of the 7,000 school service units have complied with the phaseout of units 15 years old and above.
“We have obeyed the modernization program of the LTFRB to upgrade school bus units,” he told The Standard.
Yesterday, the group hit out LTFRB chairperson Winston Ginez for imposing the phaseout policy.
While their other members have already purchased brand-new L300 Mitsubishi units to comply with the phaseout, Ginez wanted the European 4 emission standards.
Acto called on Ginez to grant another one-year moratorium.
“Here comes the summer [March], still the program has not yet been implemented,” Enrile Inton said.
In 2015, the LTFRB granted the school bus operators a 10-month moratorium until March 2016.
“The chairman fielded inspectors to different schools in Metro Manila to see if there is a shortage of school buses,” he said. “But there was none.”