The only explosive revelation to come out of the SP Committee on Transportation’s hearing last week was the admission by the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) that it had issued 414 franchises to operators of public utility vehicles (PUVs) in Catanduanes.
Of the more than four hundred franchises, he disclosed, only nine (9%) percent were actually operating before the LTFRB issued the Provisional Authority to Cat Island Express.
With his patience stretched to the limit by local transport groups questioning the issuance of a Provisional Authority to the now popular Cat Island Express, LTFRB Regional Director Joel Defeo snapped at those claiming that the number of PUVs servicing the Catandunganon riding public is sufficient.
An official of the Gigmoto-Virac Transport Service Cooperative balked at admitting this but grudgingly agreed with the director when he cited his office data.
Records showed that in said route, 15 units are supposed to be operating but only 11 are left, with only four of the express vans have renewed franchises and actually plying the route.
The visible irked law graduate threatened to issue a show-cause order to the holders of the non-operating PUV franchises to explain why it should not be revoked.
Such franchise “hoarding,” in which operators hold on to a number of PUV franchises in the hope of future expansion, bars other interested transport operators from applying for the right to run the same route.
He presented a conundrum to the GIVITRANSCO officials, which Defeo said has a pending petition for provisional authority for seven (7) PUVs.
The director said that if the cooperative maintains that there are sufficient PUVs for the route, then there is no need to grant the petition for the new PUVs.
Well said, Dir. Defeo…
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For decades now, since the time of former FICELCO General Manager Carlos Gianan III, the cooperative has been trying to get back the Balongbong Hydroelectric Power Plant (BHPP) from the national government.
It may be recalled that in 1988, then Pres. Cory Aquino issued an executive order allowing the National Power Corporation to take over the plant, with the power firm reportedly investing about P80 million.
The investment has then been recouped many times over in the nearly four decades that it has operated Balongbong, selling the electricity harnessed from water and gravity to Catandunganon consumers at the price of diesel power.
Efforts by past GMs to recover the plant were rebuffed by Napocor, which at one time allegedly asked FICELCO to pay back NPC’s investment in the Balongbong plant, money which the co-op doesn’t have.
Despite its exit from the Catanduanes grid, with some of its gensets sold or stripped away, the state power firm, however, has been unable to sell of Balongbong HPP for the simply reason that it does not own the land on which it was built.
Only the facility, not the land, was included in the takeover order.
Given the apparent injustice inflicted on FICELCO and island consumers, it is high time that a concerted effort be made to convince the Marcos administration to give back the Balongbong plant if only to ease the pain of the sure-to-be-approved 16% increase in NPC generation rates.
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THE MINISTER’S SIN. A minister parked his car in a no-parking zone in a large city because he was short of time and couldn’t find a space with a meter. So he put a note under the windshield wiper that read: “I have circled the block 100 times. If I don’t park here, I’ll miss my appointment. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES.”
When he returned, he found a citation from a police officer along with this note. “I’ve circled this block for 10 years. If I don’t give you a ticket, I’ll lose my job. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION.”