Around P500 million already given to PUV drivers as fuel subsidy

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board on Thursday said almost P500 million in fuel subsidies were already given to public utility vehicle drivers and operators amid the continued oil price hikes.

Based on LTFRB records a total of P417,086,500 million were already credited to the cards of beneficiaries of fuel subsidy across the country, where 23,047 PUV operators have already received their shares as of September 13 and 40,817 others the following day.

This could mean that a total of 63,864 PUV units had already availed of their fuel subsidy.

On the same data, those who were given an early subsidy were Traditional Public Utility
Jeepneys, and operators of Modern Public Utility Jeepney, Public Utility Bus, Mini-bus, Tourist Transport Services, School Transport Services, and Filcab.

LTFRB said with the help of their mother agency the Department of Transportation will continue to expedite the release of the fuel subsidy to cover the about 1.36 million public utility vehicle drivers and operators affected by consecutive hikes in pump prices.

The Department of Budget and Management has already released P3 billion for this purpose.