“The government has decided to push back to December its commitment to have a second CNG daughter refilling station in Batangas supposedly operational by this month,” Cris Rea, HM Transport Inc. finance officer, told reporters in an interview on Friday.
Rea said they have yet to see any sign of development or construction of the supposed second station as of now.
He added that the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp., (PNOC-EC) which is supposed to take over from Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., has yet to assume control of the operations of the existing CNG refilling station in Pilipinas Shell’s Mamplasan service station.
Rea said the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has earlier issued a department circular saying that the franchise to CNG bus operators will be granted provided they do not pass through or cross Edsa.
Department Circular 2011-14 states that to minimize traffic congestion within Metro Manila, CNG buses shall be restricted from passing through or crossing Edsa with terminal points limited to areas outside of Edsa, except potential bus routes to and from Cavite and Bataan coasts and the reclamation areas of Manila Bay.
Rea said this circular has contributed to the delay in the government’s project, which was once envisioned to bring down transport fares.
He said that CNG bus operators are even willing to retain the current fare prices without anticipating future applications for fare increases as CNG is priced at P18.38 per kilo and is sourced locally and independent from demand and supply fluctuations of world oil prices.
“The CNG buses, as envisioned by the previous administration, is the solution to the stability of fare costs, which also contributes to inflation that most Filipinos share as anybody else,” Rea said.
Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug Jr. earlier said the Malampaya consortium and the PNOC-EC are currently finalizing the takeover of the CNG mother and daughter refilling stations.
Layug said the Malampaya consortium has met and is finalizing the memorandum of agreement it entered into with PNOC-EC for the takeover the CNG mother-daughter station and the expansion of the CNG bus project.
Layug also made clear that details on how much will be paid to Shell have yet to be finalized, and that the government targets to increase the volume of buses and volume of CNG in the next three year.
“Within that three-year period, we target to have 1,000 running on CNG. And President Aquino has even mandated us to [speed up] the rolling out of the CNG buses,” Layug said.
He added that there is enough supply of CNG for transportation, which will be supplied by the consortium to PNOC-EC operator of the mother and daughter station.
Layug said they remain optimistic that a new CNG daughter station will be operational by October, and that the existing system at the mother and daughter station will be replaced by PNOC-EC by year-end.
In 2004 the government issued Executive Order 290 that paved the way for the implementation of the Natural Gas Vehicle Program for Public Transport (NGVPPT).
