MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government said that a total of 617,806 qualified tricycle drivers nationwide are set to receive their fuel cash subsidy under the Pantawid Pasada Program for Tricycle Drivers to alleviate soaring pump prices amid the pandemic.

DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board will disburse the fuel subsidy either through the beneficiaries e-wallet accounts, branches of the Landbank of the Philippines, or off-site payout by the local government units.

We hope that through this fuel subsidy, the suffering of tricycle drivers caused by the continuous increase in crude oil prices and slowdown in travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be alleviated. This is the governments way of showing its concern for our tricycle drivers, said Año.

More than 148k trike drivers disqualified

The subsidy will be distributed in three batches.

The first batch is for the 539,395 trike drivers who were able to provide an e-wallet account. The secind batch is for the 73,233 drivers who will avail of the over-the-counter transactions at the Land Bank of the Philippines branch nearest them. The third batch is for the 5,178 drivers who will avail of on-site payout at the LGUs.

Everyone on the masterlist of qualified tricycle drivers will receive a fuel subsidy. Lets just wait for the LTFRBs notification for details and more information, he said.

Earlier, the DILG directed local government units to produce and submit to the DILG a validated list of tricycle drivers, franchisees, along with their addresses; electronic wallet accounts; and a number of operating tricycles, and other details within their respective jurisdictions.

The DILG said that some 766,590 trike drivers had their names submitted for inclusion in the master list. Upon validation, however, 148,784 trike drivers nationwide were disqualified due to lack of means of verification, such as drivers license numbers, incomplete e-wallet information, or names submitted after the deadline.

There was validation and verification to ensure that the recipients of the fuel subsidy are the legitimate ones who are franchised and not colorum, have a license, and have submitted the requirements by the deadline given by the government, he said.