Most fares going up

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March 18, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has approved a provisional fare increase for several public utility vehicles, effective tomorrow.

LTFRB chairman Vigor Mendoza II said the adjustment was based on rising fuel prices, now ranging from P75 to over P90 per liter, higher costs of spare parts and increases in minimum wages from 2022 to 2025.

Mendoza said the new rates will remain provisional until operators secure their official fare matrices by June, after which the adjustments will be deemed permanent.

Covered by the fare hike are jeepneys, city and provincial buses, airport taxis, transport network vehicle services (TNVS) and point-to-point (P2P) buses.

Traditional jeepneys will implement a P1 increase in base fare, bringing it to P14, with the per-kilometer rate raised to P2.00.

Modern jeepneys, meanwhile, will see a P2 increase, setting the base fare at P17 and the per-kilometer rate at P2.40.

Ordinary buses will have a base fare of P15, up by P2, with a per-kilometer rate of P2.49, while fare for air-conditioned buses increased to P18 with P2.98 per succeeding kilometer.

The first 500 meters for airport taxis increased from P75 to P115 with no increase on the meter charge for 300 meters and two minutes.

TNVS will add P20 to the base fare, with no adjustments to distance and time-based rates, while P2P buses will implement a 15-percent increase on existing fares.

The fare adjustments for UV Express, motorcycle taxis and regular taxis are still pending and will be released next week.

Not enough

Some transport groups said the fare adjustments are not enough as oil prices continue to skyrocket in double digits.

Manibela said that the P1 bump on the fare felt like a “slap to the jeepney drivers,” saying they need more to meet their needs.

Mendoza, however, defended the adjustment, saying: “It’s hard to say to our commuters that the P2 increase is small, do the math. If they need more, then file it. Is it a slap in the face to get P1,000 a day? I know that the oil prices continue to surge but up till when?”

On the other hand, Juliet de Jesus of Mega Manila Consortium Corporation said that the P3 fare increase would be enough.

“The P3 increase is important, that is big already and we were given an increase on the succeeding kilometers,” she said.

However, de Jesus warned that they would be compelled to file for a petition again for an increase should fuel prices reach more than P100.

Burdened

Para Commuters’ Network spokesman Nanoy Rafael, for his part, expressed disappointment at LTFRB for using the rise in minimum wage to justify the fare increase.

“I don’t know what Vigor Mendoza is saying because commuters and drivers are united that if workers have poverty wages, drivers have poverty income,” Rafael told The STAR.

“It is an insult to us commuters that they implement that way and it is not justifiable that we can afford the inflation,” he added.

While the rise of the minimum wage was among the factors of fare hikes, Mendoza noted that it is not the only solution.

“It’s a give and take thing. We need to balance this because it’s a whole-of-government approach. This is not the only solution, it cannot be just transport fares because we are balancing the capacity of our commuters,” he said.

Rafael urged the government to address the needs of both sectors, including raising the national minimum wage to P1,200 and removing fuel taxes to ease financial pressures.

“If wages of workers will not be increased, they will not afford the upcoming inflation and if their fare will not be increased, there will be no modes of transportation,” Rafael said. “It is also not justifiable that drivers can work it out with the given fare adjustment as their solutions.”

Should oil prices decrease, Mendoza vowed to implement a provisional fare reduction.

However, he noted it would take time to weigh if such move is warranted.

“It should be effective as fast as we increase it also but we have to study the numbers again and issue a provisional reduction … that’s what we will do once the price of fuel will decrease,” he said.