Sen. Grace Poe condemned the utterly dismal rollout of the service contracting program by the government, led by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Republic Act 11494.
“It is lamentable that the government simply shrugged its shoulders over its inability to disburse payments to our operators under the service contracting program,” said Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services.
Participating drivers and operators decried their failure to receive due compensation for the services they rendered under the program.
LTFRB Chairman Martin Delgra said in a recent interview that they have disbursed P1.25 billion or 26.55 percent of the P5.58-billion allotted for payouts last June.
“Hindi katanggap-tanggap ang labis na kabagalan sa paglabas ng pondong pambayad sa mga operator at drayber na walang kapagurang naghatid sa ating mga frontliner araw at gabi,” said Poe.
Poe has filed a resolution (unnumbered) seeking an inquiry into the slow implementation of the service contracting program, which she earlier pushed to be included in Bayanihan 2 to help give livelihood to drivers who were left without income amid the pandemic.
“We had hoped that the provision of assistance to PUV drivers would be given the express lane treatment. Instead, it got stuck in bureaucratic gridlock,” said Poe.
Recently, the Commission on Audit (COA) noted that the LTFRB utilized only P59.72 million or 1.07 percent of the P5.58-billion appropriation under the law.
Poe also bemoaned the findings of the COA that the release of the service contracting program was delayed by 11 months. In addition, only 2,125 of 60,000 target beneficiaries were onboarded to the LTFRB’s dashboard.
“We can’t just sit and watch as our ‘kings of the road’ who have always rushed to the rescue of stranded commuters have now become beggars on the streets with no one to look after them,” stressed Poe.
