Funding crunch caps service contracting program at 2 weeks

The Department of Transportation’s (DoTr) Service Contracting (SC) program is set to initially run for only two weeks, as its P1-billion initial budget is insufficient to sustain a wider rollout of the initiative designed to help stabilize public transport operations amid a global crisis.

At a media briefing on Friday, Transportation Acting Secretary Giovanni Lopez said the initial rollout is constrained by nationwide coverage and funding, but the government is pushing to extend implementation.

Roll-out all at once

“We can manage two weeks, to be honest, because this is nationwide, but we are still trying to extend it to three weeks, although we might have difficulty because we will be rolling it out all at once,” Lopez said.

Earlier, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had announced that under the SC program, the government, through DoTr, starting 15 April, will pay operators and drivers from P40 to 100 per kilometers. “This will be an additional take-home pay from the fares that they get from their passengers.”