By Alexandria San Juan

A commuters group criticized on Wednesday a lawmaker’s suggestion to fine ride-hailing firm Grab Philippines P15 billion for ‘overcharging’ its users, noting that most fines do not directly benefit the inconvenienced passengers.

In a statement, commuter network The Passenger Forum called Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA) partylist Representative Jericho Nograles’s move to impose more fines against Grab as an “absurd idea.”

“While we are not sure of Rep. Nograles’ motivation or intention, we think that he is shooting from the hip with this absurd idea. If he thinks this is pro-passenger, he needs to further study the dynamics of how the transport network vehicle service system (TNVS) works,” Primo Morillo, the group’s convenor, said.

Morillo also explained that most fines do not directly benefit riders as the money goes “straight to the coffers of the national government,” citing as an example the fines meted against Cebu Pacific in January 2015.

According to Morillo, the P50 million or so in fines slapped on the airline company did not reach the pockets of any of the passengers affected by Cebu Pacific’s flight delays and cancellations in December 2014.

“The decision of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to make Grab distribute a portion of fines to customers is better than making the LTFRB (Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board) collect fines that will not be distributed,” Morillo said.

Per a recent PCC order, Grab will be paying more than P5 million to passengers who took rides from February to May 2019 after the antitrust body identified certain deviations from the firm’s voluntary commitments.

Grab assured the public that it will work closely with the PCC and will be paying the corresponding penalties.

‘More fines will hurt drivers, commuters’

The commuter network convenor also said that aside from not being directly beneficial to passengers, additional fines hurt drivers and operators directly and commuters indirectly.

“We cannot say for how long Grab Philippines will be able to absorb the financial effects of fines. If these penalties will severely affect the income of drivers and operators, it will discourage them from being part of the TNVS sector which will result [in] lesser units on the road. And if the supply of TNVS units cannot satisfy rider demand, it results [in] surge pricing,” Morillo said.

“Anything that hurts drivers and operators eventually hurts passengers. This is especially true for TNVS as riders are usually those who are already fed up with unreliable mass transportation options or, shall we say, lack of options,” he continued.

‘No overcharging’

Contrary to Nograles’ allegations on overcharging, the group asserted that Grab’s fare is still compliant with the matrix approved by the LTFRB as they observed in their monitoring.

“We are really curious how Rep. Nograles concluded that there is overcharging. He is seeing numbers that we aren’t getting with all the studies we’ve been doing,” Morillo said.

Grab earlier maintained that it did not overcharge its riders and has no liability to pay any fine as its fares were well within the fare matrix of the LTFRB.

“Grab’s fares continue to comply with the LTFRB fare matrix, and therefore there is absolutely no basis to apply the provisions of JAO (Joint Administrative Order) 2014-01 cited by Representative Nograles,” Grab Philippines president Brian Cu said on Tuesday.