The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Thursday about 1.2 million tricycle drivers and operators can be eligible for fuel subsidies.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said his department is tasked to direct local government units to come up with a list of names of tricycle drivers and operators, which he estimated at 1.2 million.
The list would then be submitted to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), which will distribute the cash aid.
The LTFRB started distributing P6,500 in fuel subsidies to over 377,000 qualified public utility vehicle (PUV) drivers and operators in March to ease the burden of rising fuel costs.
Senator Grace Poe said the Commission on Elections (Comelec)) order to allow the resumption of fuel subsidy distribution to PUV drivers and operators was a timely response.
“We urge the government to speed up efforts on the use of digital payments through financial service providers like e-wallets for a more efficient aid distribution during a crisis,” Poe said.
The use of the national ID system, Poe added, will also make it easier to identify and verify the data of beneficiaries.
“Help is most effective when it reaches our people in their time of need,” said Poe, who chairs the Senate committee on public services.
Senator Panfilo Lacson on Thursday commended the Comelec for allowing the resumption of fuel subsidy.
“Way to go and kudos to the Comelec for acting expeditiously on such a no-brainer issue involving the fuel subsidy,” said Lacson ,who is running as an independent presidential candidate in the May 9 elections.
The subsidy is a grant under the Special Provision of the Department of Transportation’s 2022 budget.
The Comelec earlier exempted the release of fuel subsidies from the campaign spending ban.
Commissioner George Garcia said the release of the fuel subsidies can resume once the Comelec en banc comes out with a formal resolution.
The exemption also covers the release of fuel subsidies channeled through the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Garcia said the agencies and departments must “specifically mention the beneficiaries, how and when the project will be implemented, as well as documentation as to the compliance to the implementation before of similar projects.”
The LTFRB’s Pantawid Pasada program seeks to provide P6,500 worth of fuel subsidy each to some 377,443 PUV drivers.
Earlier, Lacson questioned the suspension of the fuel subsidies.
“Unless there is jurisprudence along that line, I don’t think the national government should be covered by the election ban on providing social services to our people especially at a time when the prices of fuel continue to go up,” Lacson said.
Lacson said the fuel subsidy was a “call of the times,” adding the continued rise in the prices of oil threaten to crush those in the transport sector, as well as fishermen and farmers.
“I do not see how that can be construed as vote-buying,” he added.
Meanwhile, transport group Pasang Masda has filed a new petition seeking to increase the minimum jeepney fare from P9 to P14.
The LTFRB last month denied petitions for a P1 provisional fare hike.