BUS operators on Tuesday denounced what they called government policies and orders that are “illegal, irregular and inimical to public interest.”

These circulars, bus operators said, add to their woes and burdens.

Cited by bus and transport groups is Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Memorandum Circular 2008-005, issued on April 2 by Chairman Thompson Lantion and Board Members Gerardo Pinili and Ellen Dirige-Cabatu which allows expired franchises to be revived.

Under the assailed circular, franchises described as “dead” by the complaining operators are allowed to be revived. The circular, according to transport sources, contains an “open-ended” provision that allows long-expired franchises to be revived for “justifiable reasons and circumstances subject to the sound discretion of the Board.”

The assailed LTFRB circular, provincial and Metro Manila bus operators assert, will “open the door wide open to the entry of hundreds of new buses on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue which is already saturated with excess buses.” The circular is also inconsistent with the government moves to reduce excess buses and jeepneys on saturated routes through an ongoing drive against illegally operated buses.

The revival of expired franchises, LTFRB and transport sources say, is a “highly lucrative business” for those behind the scheme. Once revived, the expired franchises are sold at between P100,000 to P300,000 per unit authorized in the revived franchise.

Recently, the LTFRB authorized the routing of 15 buses on the Norzagaray-Baclaran via Taft Avenue route to Edsa via Fairview and Commonwealth Avenue. Thus, 15 more buses have been added to the already saturated route by the questionable LTFRB decision.

Another “highly lucrative” undertaking Metro Manila bus operators are assailing in a letter sent to Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza is the alleged irregular opening of closed routes pursuant to questionable RMCs (Route Measured Capacities) issued by a technical group in the Department of Transportation and Communications. Under the RMC method, a bus or jeepney route is opened upon determination of public need for buses or jeepneys based on ocular inspections or surveys.

But according to the eleven Metro Manila bus operators who complained to Mendoza in a letter dated April 1, 2008, there is a need for “an investigation of the RMC Committee presently headed by engineer Robert Delfin of the planning division of the department regarding the inordinate, inappropriate and questionable grants of RMCs.”

Transport sources who declined to be named, disclosed that like the revival of expired franchises, the issuance of RMCs for the opening of bus and jeepney routes is also a “highly lucrative undertaking.”

NEDA workers want NBN papers bared

EMPLOYEES of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) are urging the agency’s top management to disclose the documents, including all correspondences, project-evaluation reports and board resolutions related to the controversial national broadband network (NBN) project.

THE principal suspect in the killing of eight people and the wounding of six others in Laguna on Monday was killed following a shootout with policemen who came to arrest him.

JUSTICE Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Tuesday said it is up to the Congress to enact another death penalty law in reaction to the upsurge of violent crimes in the country.

THE official death toll of Typhoon Cosme rose to 13 as the weather disturbance left the country.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said eight were killed in Ilocos, one in Central Luzon, three in Eastern Visayas and one in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

SUBIC BAY FREE PORT—Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) had warned employees at the Hanjin shipyard here that malaria, a disease transmitted by mosquito bite, is prevalent at the Redondo Peninsula, the site of the shipbuilding project that now employs some 17,000 workers.

BUS operators on Tuesday denounced what they called government policies and orders that are “illegal, irregular and inimical to public interest.”

THE House Committee on Legislative Franchises has started deliberations on the bill granting a 25-year franchise to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to manage, operate, maintain and improve the country’s national power grid.