Regulating UBER with Franchise is New Way to Feed Hungry Politicians

Contributed by Jenny Joy Manrique of Makati, MM. Photo credit uber.com (This article is a contributed opinion and not a satire)

Jenny Almeda has to wake-up at 5:00AM, prepare her food and everything for one hour, and drive from Muntinlupa to UN Avenue for 80 to 90 minutes daily. Sometimes, it takes her almost 2 hours during heavy traffic. Almeda, a 26-year old Certified Public Accountant has been suffering from lack of sleep for 3 years. She arrives home at 8:00 or later at night.

When Jenny heard that UBER will be available in Philippines, she was hopeful that she can have longer sleeping hours. Familiar on how UBER works, she believes that the application could reduce thousands of private vehicles from Metro Manila streets daily, thus allowing the traffic to flow smoothly.

Within a week that she’s been sharing a ride with 3 different UBER users, she saved more than 1,000 in gas, and feels fresher every morning when she enters her company. The traffic is still the same but at least she doesn’t need to drive while paying lesser amount than taxi, and also feeling safer.

Jenny thought UBER is the future solution for Metro Manila’s heavy traffic problem, but when LTFRB announced that it wanted to tax UBER, she thinks otherwise.

“LTFRB, one of the most corrupt government agencies is once again  trying to milk private people to feed hungry politicians. This country is destined to doom. Instead of focusing on solving the real problems, they only see things where they can make money”, Jenny said.

People’s reaction about the LTFRB plan is not favorable. Asking private vehicles to pay tax and requiring them to have permit is illegal, but LTFRB recently said they are trying to find ways to make the move legal and press private vehicles that uses UBER apps to pay tax.

“The Philippine government is getting crazier and crazier day by day. If they can only ask people who live on squatter’s area to pay tax, I think they will”, Almeda said.

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