{"id":270838,"date":"2020-10-05T08:11:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T12:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=270838"},"modified":"2020-10-05T08:11:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T12:11:34","slug":"duterte-opposes-beep-card-issuance-fee-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/05\/duterte-opposes-beep-card-issuance-fee-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte opposes beep card issuance fee: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: NO BEEP CARD, NO PROBLEM. A bus conductor collects cash payment from passengers at the Edsa Pasay Road on Monday (Oct. 5, 2020). The Department of Transportation has suspended the mandatory use of Beep cards for the Edsa Carousel Busway System after automated payment collection firm AF Payments Inc. refused to give these cards to passengers for free upon payment of load. (PNA photo by Jess M. Escaros Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte is against the payment of initial fees for stored value beep cards, Malaca\u00f1ang said Monday.<\/p>\n

This, after the Department of Transportation (DOTr) suspended the mandatory use of beep cards AF Payments Inc. (AFPI), the consortium composed of conglomerates Ayala Group and First Pacific Group, after it refused to waive the PHP80 cost of the cards on top of the fare load.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte felt bad upon hearing the news since it would be an additional burden for those struggling to survive amid the prevailing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng naging damdamin ni Presidente ay tutol din siya sa binabayaran na<\/em>\u00a0beep card\u00a0at marahil po isa ito sa dahilan kung bakit sinuspindi muna iyong paniningil para sa<\/em>\u00a0beep card. (The President was against the charges for the beep card and it\u2019s possibly one of the decisions why the initial fees for beep cards were suspended),\u201d Roque said in a press briefing from Boracay.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte is aware that many Filipinos only had enough money to get by.<\/p>\n

\u201cNahabag po talaga ang Presidente doon sa isang balita na maraming mga naghihirap nating mga kababayan ang nagulat dahil ang pera nila ay sapat lamang sa pamasahe at pagkain para sa araw na iyon<\/em>\u00a0(The President really felt bad after he heard the news that people were shocked because they only had enough money for their fare and food for that day),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked for the possibility that the government would shoulder the cost of initial fees for stored value beep cards, Roque said the matter is already being reviewed by the DOTr.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, pointed out that the suspension of the use of beep cards means that the government listens to the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cItong pagsuspinde ng gamit ng<\/em>\u00a0beep card altogether,\u00a0ay patunay na nakikinig ang gobyerno sa taumbayan<\/em>\u00a0(The suspension of the use of beep cards means that the government is listening to the public),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the government\u2019s policies show that people\u2019s concerns are its top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi po natin made<\/em>-deny\u00a0na may puso naman po itong administrasyon na ito<\/em>\u00a0(We cannot deny that this administration has a heart for the people),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Transport Secretary Art Tugade called on AFPI to give the beep cards for free to commuters.<\/p>\n

Tugade also wanted commuters to have the option to load the beep card with the amount they need for the fare.<\/p>\n

The DOTr said the beep payment system was implemented for passengers on Edsa Busway for its interconnectivity with Metro Manila trains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte is against the payment of initial fees for stored value beep cards, Malaca\u00f1ang said Monday. This, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":270839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270840,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270838\/revisions\/270840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}