Singer’s bus franchise suspended

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has cancelled the franchise of Philippine Corinthian Liner, a bus company run by singer Claire de la Fuente.

In an interview, LTFRB board member Manuel Iway said the regulator also suspended the franchises of two smaller bus companies for their participation in the transport strike on the 15th of November last year.

The strike, which was done on a Monday, left thousands of Metro Manila commuters stranded.

Iway said the certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) of De la Fuente’s Philippine Corinthian Liner Corp., which operates 107 buses on Edsa, was cancelled.

“This company did not deny its participation in the strike. They claimed that it was their right,” he said in an interview.

However, Iway said the board noted that transportation was a public service. “This transport strike was unlawful,” he said.

“The board hopes to send a strong message that holding a public transport franchise is a privilege given by the state and is always subject to government regulation,” Iway said.

De la Fuente, who is also a restaurateur, refused to make statement, saying she had not yet received a copy of the LTFRB resolution.

Meanwhile, Iway said the franchises of ES Transport Inc. and Bovjen Transportation Services Inc. were suspended for three and six months, respectively.

ES Transport operates 10 units while Bovjen has 16. Iway said the two companies were given lighter penalties because they both claimed that they did not participate in the strike. However, neither was able to produce enough evidence to prove otherwise.

Last November’s strike was done in protest of the Metro Manila Development Authority’s move to include buses in the plate number coding scheme to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads during certain hours of the day.

The scheme, aimed at reducing congestion by keeping vehicles off the road one day of every week depending on their plate numbers, previously covered only private cars.

Buses have been consistently blamed for heavy traffic on Metro Manila roads, especially on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa). A previous study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency showed that Edsa can handle a maximum 1,600 buses a day. Some 3,500 of them ply the route daily. (report from Paolo Luis G. Montecillo, Philippine Daily Inquirer)