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MANILA – Five bus companies plying provincial routes have asked the Department of Transportation and Communications to investigate the Land Transport Franchising and Regulatory Board’s allegedly hasty award of 489 franchises to a rival operator.
In a letter to DOTC Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas, GV Florida Bus Lines, Dagupan Bus Lines, Saulog Transit, Partas and Baliwag Transit sought a probe into the resurrection of the franchises of Pantranco North Express Inc. and their award to companies owned by the Hernandez family.
The 489 franchises cover routes between Metro Manila and Central and North Luzon.
“Never in the history of the Public Service Law has there been a wholesale grant of 489 units to one bus-owning family. Even the most corrupt schemers under the previous administration dared not resurrect the dead franchises of Pantranco because there was barely any legal cover for reviving certificates of public convenience which validity had expired 20 years ago,” the letter read.
The complainants alleged that the LTFRB distributed the 489 bus franchises to retrenched workers of Pantranco, who in turn handed over the same permits to five other bus companies – Pangasinan Five Star, Victory Liner, Bataan Transit, First North Luzon Bus Co. and Luzon Cisco Transport – all of which are supposedly owned by the Hernandez family.
“The award of the dead franchises also sets back the expected shift to governing paradigm of integrity, accountability, and honesty in the various agencies and instrumentalities of government which was the general call at the conclusion of the impeachment trial,” the complainants’ letter read.
Citing a DOTC Memorandum to LTFRB dated July 23, 1996 as well as LTFRB Memorandum Circular 2010-034, the complainants said the Pantranco permits couldn’t be sold or transferred to other parties after they expired in 1993.
They also pointed to earlier LTFRB decisions that prohibited the multiple sale of franchises, the dropping and substitution of units, as well as deeds of sale that involved no transfer in ownership of buses.
The complainants also said the resurrection of the 489 franchises went against a moratorium on the grant of new lines on non-missionary routs, as well as the Aquino administration’s thrust of decongesting Edsa.
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