BAGUIO CITY — The Baguio City Council wants to suspend the taxi fare hike implemented by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) in the City of Pines, calling the increase as “exorbitant, excessive, and beyond the reach of commuters” in the city.
The city’s policy-making body is again inviting the national officials of the LTFRB to explain how they came up with the taxi fare hike now being implemented in Baguio, Councilor Elaine Sembrano told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Thursday.
“We earlier wrote them, inviting them to the city council last Monday, April 30, but they did not come. So, we sent another invitation for them to come on Monday, May 7,” Sembrano said in a telephone interview.
The invitation came as the city council approved Sembrano’s earlier resolution asking for the suspension of the taxi fare hike, which she said locals and visitors alike find as burdensome.
Sembrano said the public were surprised with the LTFRB’s implementation of a taxi fare hike without a public hearing, triggering numerous complaints from commuters, including tourists.
Last March, the LTFRB implemented in Baguio a taxi fare increase of PHP13.50 per kilometer and additional PHP2 per minute of travel time, whether caught in a traffic or not. These are all on top of the steady PHP35 flag-down rate.
Taxis with plate numbers ending in 1, 2, 3, and 4 were calibrated in March for the new fare. Those ending in 6,7,8 were calibrated in April. while those with plate numbers ending in 5, 9, and zero are set for calibration this month.
Sembrano relayed that since the start of the fare hike’s implementation, there had been numerous complaints raised by the riding public, saying their taxi fares had nearly doubled.
A passenger who takes a cab from her residence beside Police Station 9 in Barangay Irisan to city hall used to spend PHP95 to PHP97. With the increase, she now pays up to PHP169 for the same distance.
The city resolution states that the local government is mandated by the Local Government Code to foster at all times the general welfare of its constituents.
It says the taxi fare increase was unilaterally decided upon by the LTFRB, without due notice to the city and affected stakeholders. This prevented the Baguio residents from stating their position, it adds.
The resolution underscores the importance of the LTFRB conducting public hearings for a taxi fare hike to determine the appropriate fare increase warranted under the present socio-economic conditions in the city.
embrano said they had first sought the action of the LTFRB in Baguio, but the local office was always pointing to the national office for the city’s request. (Liza Agoot/PNA)
