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CEBU CITY, Philippines - It was already noontime but Antonio Aleguiojo barely earned P100 after almost five hours of driving around his new 04L route.
Aleguiojo said that since the route of 04L jeepneys was shortened by the City Traffic Management Operations (Citom), he has been losing at least P300 a day.
?Kuhaan pa gud na nimo ug gasoline, pila na gud nang gasoline karon, maayo ra man ug makahipos ko'g P200 o kaha P300 sa usa ka adlaw (Deduct from that the cost of gasoline and it would be good if I could net P200 or P300 a day),? said Aleguiojo.
Aleguiojo, however, does not worry about having to pay rent since he owns the jeepney he drives. He also said that he is not raising any kids anymore; and he only needs to earn for him and his wife.
But driver Nonoy Barroso is more affected with the shortened 04L route. Barroso said that the shortened route has given him his lowest earning since he started driving 25 years ago.
?Bitaw, sukad-sukad karon pa gyud ko aning gamay ra kag kita. Laliman ka, ayo ra man ug mulimpyo kag gatos (This is the first time for me to earn so low, so much so that a net amount of P100 is good enough),? Barroso said.
Since last week, Barroso has been earning P700 for almost 12 hours of driving around the shortened route. He pays P400 for the rent of the jeepney and he also pays for gasoline.
Barroso's two children are both in college. He is afraid that he might have to let one of them stop schooling as he can no longer provide for their needs.
Barroso and Aleguiojo are just two of the around 170 drivers of 04L who are affected by the rerouting.
The 04L route used to ply the Lahug-SM via Ayala route but this was shortened last week. They can no longer travel to SM. Upon reaching F. Cabahug St., they now take a left turn back to Lahug instead of turning right to SM City Cebu.
The rerouting, according to the Citom, is just a 30-day experimental run. The rerouting was intended to eliminate the overlapping of jeepney routes.
Cebu City Council Transportation Committee Chairman Sylvan Jakosalem said that he has received a lot of complaints from passengers mostly working at SM that the rerouting of 04L has become a burden to them as they now need to take two jeepney rides in getting to work.
He said that he will ask the Citom board to stop the rerouting as soon as possible to avoid more complaints. SM management, according to Jakosalem, has talked to him saying their business has also been affected by the rerouting.
Meanwhile, jeepneys from the towns of Consolacion, Liloan, and Compostela will be placed on an ?experimental? rerouting next week to accommodate the establishments at the Mandaue reclamation area such as the Park Mall and the Cebu Doctors' University.
Jomar Ostia, executive director of Mandaue's traffic board, said they have already sent a request to the Council to ask for authority to start the experiment.
Councilor Emiliano Rosal, chair of the committee on transportation, said in a separate interview that before the traffic board sent a request, he had already given the go-signal through a resolution several weeks ago.
Specific directions will be announced in the coming days through leaflets and ads over the newspaper and radio, said Ostia. /Reporter Dale G. Israel and Correspondent Carine M. Asutilla
