The Department of Transportation (DOTR) is seeking for PHP6 billion funding to continue the Service Contracting Program (SCP) for the transportation program, while the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) would like the fare subsidy program to be institutionalized as a regular allocation under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) to ensure continuity of the SCP.
Senior Undersecretary for Road Transport and Infrastructure Mark Steven Pastor said during Monday’s launch of the SCP or “Lakbay Alalay ng Gobyerno” for the maritime sector in light of the ongoing challenges in fuel prices amid the war in Iran. The initial SCP has only PHP1 billion of which only PHP200 million was set aside for the maritime sector while the bulk of PHP800 million went to the public utility vehicle drivers and operators.
During the same press conference, MARINA Administrator Sonia B. Malaluan said they have made representation with Congress to regularize the fare subsidy program in the GAA.
MARINA has also requested Congress to include the maritime sector in the SCP program in the proposed Kalinga Bill. “But we will leave that to the wisdom of the legislators,” she said.
Administrator Malaluan noted that MARINA has no funds for fare subsidy and they have no power over fund allocation for this kind of subsidy in their regular fund.
The Kalinga Bill or Komprehensibong Alalay sa Livelihood, Inflation, Negosyo at Goods Assistance is a proposed national crisis-response framework. The proposed bill seeks to automatically trigger targeted government subsidies and interventions during extraordinary fuel price increases, supply disruptions, and inflation spikes.
The House of Representatives already passed the Kalinga Bill on second reading.
