By Anthony Aniscal
The entry of the Southern Star under the Villacarta Ceres Bus Co. earned praises and satisfaction from the riding public due to their better services compared to the old bus operators, wherein the public appreciated the company's 20-minutes terminal departure intervals.
In an interview by the Chronicle last Thursday, Loloy Palasan, the operations manager of the Southern Star, responded to the barrage of callers and texters who praised their company, by assuring the public that the Southern Star will not stop in looking for ways to better serve the Boholano riding public.
Palasan said that they are planning to add more schedules of their units running to the routes of the interior parts of Bohol and to the town of Talibon via Ubay.
During the interview, Palasan clarified that that their presence in the province is only to serve the Boholano riding public and their company has no plan to eat up or gobble up small time and old bus operators in the province.
“We are here for friendly competition and the aim of our company is to deliver better services to the Boholano riding public.â€, Palasan said.
The Southern Star operations manager issued the statement after small time and other bus operators here raised their concerns that due to the entry of the Ceres liners, their business will be eaten up as what happened to small time bus operators in Mindanao and Cebu. Hence, their employees such as drivers, helpers and “kunduktors†will eventually lose their job.
According to Palasan, the Southern Star is now tied up with the company owners of St. Jude Bus transit. In fact, they are only running the old routes of the St. Jude transit.
OPEN TUBIGON ROUTE
While most of the Boholanos in the Eastern parts were pleased with the entry of the Southern Star, others want the Ceres liner to open new routes bound for Tubigon town as the current buses running in the said routes do not deliver better services.
“The buses that are now running bound for Tubigon are always filled with passengers before departing in the Integrated Bus Terminal in Tagbilaran and at times, they overcharged their fare collectionsâ€, one of the callers said.
With this, Palasan said that their company will try to consider the expansion of their routes to the Northern parts of the province without giving timetable.
AIRCON BUSES COMING
As the riding public in the Eastern parts of the province are satisfied with the services of the company, Palasan bared that by next year, they will provide air-conditioned units in the province.
Palasan added that in terms of fare collections, their company followed the guidelines from the LTFRB wherein bus operators are only allowed to collect a maximum of P1.35 per kilometer. In fact, Palasan said that here in the province, they are only collecting P1 per kilometer from the riding public.
Other callers and texters during the interview urged Palasan to open new routes in the town of Jagna especially during the days wherein vessels from Mindanao are docking in the said town. Others said that the Dory Transit sometimes overcharge the passengers from the vessels.
In fact, one of the concerned citizen- callers said that most of the time, buses from Jagna, during days wherein vessels are docking, are charging the same rate to all passengers to the tune of P60 per head even if such passengers disembark in the towns of Lila and Loay.
DENIES OVERCHARGING
Michael Tan, son of the Dory Transit owner, denied the allegation of overcharging the passengers from vessels bound from Mindanao which dock in Jagna.
Tan said that there were no instructions given to their “kunduktors†to charge all their passengers from vessels with a uniform fare of P60.
“We will going to check such report of overcharging the passengersâ€, Tan said.
For his part, Palasan said that their company will study whether they will open new routes from Jagna especially on days wherein vessels from Mindanao are docking.
As of now, the Southern Star company opened a last trip route to Jagna at eight o'clock every night from the Integrated Bus Terminal.
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