CDO Commuters Asking Help from the Government with the Fare Rate on PUJ and Motorela

Cagayan de Oro City is under Alert Level 2 - refers to areas wherein case transmission is low and decreasing, with that, establishments and other areas are easing restrictions, including the seating capacity in public utility vehicles such as jeepneys, motorelas and other recognized public transportation. But the problem with our fellow commuters is the existing fare rate in these public transportation hasn't been adjusted, in fact there are few reports that drivers are over charging way more than the fare rate and some commuters are asking the City Government to impose regular or adjusted tariff on fare on PUJs and other public transporation that is fair for the drivers and the commuters since the seating capacity now has been increased in order to avoid over charging.

In fact, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is pushing its proposal to raise the passenger capacity in public transport back to 100 percent to help jeepney drivers and operators somehow recover during the pandemic and fuel increase, but they are not keen to jeepney fare hike.

We have all been affected with the pandemic and it is only fair that whenever there are changes on anything, there should be a chain reactions especially when it comes to rates and prices of the products and services. Increasing or returning back the passenger capacity to 100% is one of the measures being considered to help drivers and operators recover amid the pandemic, but how about the commuters? Commuters are also being affected and they needed assistance with their daily expenses. 

The government should implement an immediate price ceiling on the price of basic commodities during the pandemic. Fare hike is untimely right now, and the government should do something with the on-going increase on fuel prices.