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DAVAO CITY—The
bus company that mainly serves the Davao City-Cotabato
City route has terminated its trips in Kabacan, North
Cotabato, starting Tuesday, because of extortion and
security problems.
The
decision to ferry passengers only up to Kabacan
surprised hundreds of passengers at both the
Davao City and the
Cotabato City terminals, who regularly take the six-hour
trip.
Abelardo
Gamilla, operations manager of both Weena Bus and its
sister company People’s Transport, said the company
leaves it to the government to solve its problems.
Among
the complaints that People’s Transport raised were the
extortion by armed Moro groups which the company said
are identified with the Moro guerrillas, the bombing or
burning of its buses and the refusal of armed men,
including some soldiers, to pay fare.
“Many of
these activities happen in Kabacan, Pikit and Midsayap,”
Gamilla said.
Gamilla
said the company lost 11 buses, that cost an average of
P4.5 million each, to bombings and arson owing to its
failure to yield to the extortion demands of some
groups.
The
company, he said, used to give in to the extortion
demand, but it has already been forced to sell
properties in some prime locations to pay off the
extortionists but the demands continue.
“We are
losing P250,000 a month alone to passengers who refuse
to pay their fares,” he said.
He said
a nonair-conditioned bus was supposed to carry an
average of 45 passengers “but many of these trips carry
as many as can be accommodated.”
“One
time that I made a surprise inspection and asked one of
these passengers why he had no ticket, he just looked at
me menacingly from head to foot,” he said.
He added
that the problem was compounded by the move of the Land
Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB)
to defy its own policy on the operation of closed vans.
Gamilla
said that the garage-to-terminal policy allows vans on
routes not exceeding 88 km, “but the LTFRB offices in
Davao City and Cotabato City have allowed these L300
vans to travel the
Davao City-Cotabato
City route, a distance of 226 km.”
“These
are problems that the local governments cannot solve,”
he said. He said the company would leave the decision to
the national government.
Business
groups in
Cotabato
City
have already appealed to the management of Weena Bus and
People’s Transport but the management has stood firm on
its decision, Gamilla said.
“Anyway,
we would only incur minimal loss in terms of lost fares,
than suffer terribly from bombings and extortion,” he
said.
The fare
on air-conditioned buses on the Davao City-Cotabato City
route is P339, while that on the shortened Davao City-Kabacan
route is about P290.
The
Weena Bus and People’s Transport operate 200 bus units,
but field only 130 at a time. Only 34 are
air-conditioned. |
