QC eyes street parking fees

An ordinance is being proposed by Quezon City Councilor Jesus Suntay to implement the charging of street parking fees on roads near "areas of special interest." If approved, parking fees of P10 for the first three hours plus P5 for every succeeding block of three hours will be charged for parking on roads surrounding the city's "parks, churches, government offices, schools, museums, hospitals and shopping malls."

Hay naku! Dagdag gastos na naman ito. Okay lang sana kung maalagaan at ma-pro-protektahan nila ng mabuti ang mga nakaparadang sasakyan, kaso alam naman nating lahat na di nila magagawa ito ng mabuti.

More fuel hikes and rollbacks

Effective 12:01am yesterday, Chevron, Shell and SeaOil implemented a 50 cent price hike on gasoline and rollbacks of 50 cents and P1.00 for diesel and kerosene respectively. Following their announcement, Petron also implemented the same price changes effective 6:00am yesterday. PTT Philippines, on the other hand, implemented a 50 cent rollback on diesel effective at 12:01am today. No changes on the prices of their other petroleum products were announced.

With this latest round of price changes, the Big 3's pump prices for gasoline has gone up by P1.75 while diesel has gone down by P3.75 since the start of the year. I'm sure the smaller players have slightly different price movements but since the majority of all gas stations in the metro belong to the Big 3, this doesn't really make that big an impact for the average consumer.

P.S. Sorry for the late reporting. We're all pretty busy these days.

P10 add-on for taxis might come back

Citing recent increases in gasoline prices and an impending increase for AutoLPG, the Philippine National Taxi Operators Association is mulling over requesting the reimposition of the P10 add-on rate during the next LTFRB hearing scheduled for February 18.

Labo ng MMDA: New list of cities without UVVRP

Sa dami ng nagtatanong tungkol sa status ng UVVRP for Pasig at Paranaque, tinawagan namin ulit yung MMDA Hotline (136). Ang sagot nila ngayon ay ang mga lungsod ng Pasig, Paranaque at Marikina ang walang coding at ang Pasay daw ay meron.

Labo talaga.

Anyway, updated na po ulit yung UVVRP post.

Third time's the charm: gas goes up, diesel and kerosene goes down

The Big 3, Total Philippines and PTT have all announced a price hike on gasoline prices effective 12:01am on Wednesday, January 28, 2009, with the exception of Petron, who will be implementing the price increase beginning 6:00am the same day. The Big 3 and Total will be increasing gasoline by P1 per liter while PTT will only raise its pump price by 50 cents.

Also, a 75 cent and P1 rollback for diesel and kerosene, respectively, will be implemented by the Big 3 and Total at the same time as their price increase for gasoline. PTT, on the other hand, has announced a P1 per liter rollback for both its diesel and kerosene.

These announcements follow SeaOil's rollback of diesel and kerosene by P2 per liter and Eastern Petroleum's P1 rollback for the same products earlier today. The two firms did not announce nor implement a price increase for gasoline.

With all these price movements, we believe that the oil firms have adopted a confuse-the-consumer policy in an effort to stem negative public opinion on the price hikes. It sure is working on us!

While we're on the topic, shouldn't the LTFRB now be pushing for price reductions for public transport fares? We seem to recall that they, together with various transport groups, have vowed to bring down fares once diesel reaches a certain price point, which we believe has already been reached.

Update on UVVRP coverage

In response to several queries submitted to Huli Ka! regarding the UVVRP, we called up the MMDA Hotline (136) to inquire about the cities that have 1) chosen to NOT implement UVVRP, and 2) do not recognize the 10:00am to 3:00pm window.

In response to the first question, the cities of Marikina and (surprisingly) Pasay have chosen NOT to implement UVVRP within their bounderies.

As for the second question, the cities of Makati, Las Pinas and Malabon have all chosen to implement UVVRP from 7:00am to 7:00pm.

Anyway, we have changed our UVVRP post to reflect the changes.

Drive safe!

MMDA implements wireless video cameras on EDSA

Smile! You're on camera!

MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando has announced on Sunday, January 25, 2009, that the MMDA has started using traffic surveillance cameras on EDSA to catch traffic violators in the act. The program, which is currently on a three month trial stage, was implemented in support of their "no physical contact" policy. Similar to "speed camera" programs used in other countries around the world, violators caught on tape will be sent a notice (presumably, to the address indicated on the vehicle's registration) which will contain the details of their violation as well as a still photo of the vehicle "in the act". Violators will then have 7 days upon receipt of the notice to either file an appeal with the Traffic Adjudication Board or pay the fine at any Metrobank branch. Failure to pay within the 7 days will automatically result in the flagging of the vehicle's registration and/or the owner's driver's license, which will be cause for their non-renewal.

For those of you who are interested, you can get more details on the MMDA's traffic surveillance cameras here.

Didn't they implement a similar program a few years back? I seem to recall some friends telling me that they've received a violation notices before, mostly those who were caught on camera driving on the yellow lanes. Anyway, I hope they're able to iron out the details on this as issues such as other people driving somebody else's car and relatively short videos not telling the whole story are bound to cause some confusion (and irritation, at least on the part of the vehicle owners).

UniOil cuts diesel, kerosene by P2

UniOil announced on Monday that they will be rolling back diesel and kerosene prices by P2 per liter. The rollback, which took effect at 2pm today, has brought down UniOil's diesel and kerosene prices to P28.97 and P37.68 per liter, respectively.

Expect traffic around Crame on Monday, January 26

The PNP will be celebrating their 18th Anniversary on Monday, January 26, 2009, so expect traffic to be heavy around that area in the morning. In fact, they'll be closing the area around Camp Crame's Santolan gate between 7am and 9am while they conduct flagraising and wreathlaying ceremonies. So all motorists are advised to avoid area during that time or take alternative routes.

Gasoline up, diesel down again

For the second time this week, oil firms have announced an increase on gasoline prices by 75 cents. The Big 3 have all implemented the increase beginning today, with both Shell and Chevron also increasing their E10 pump prices by P1 per liter. All three firms, plus PTT Philippines, have also implemented a 50 cent rollback on diesel.

Seems like the oil companies are putting one up on the people again. When global oil prices go up, they implement price increases immediately. But when the pricing trend is going the opposite way, they delay the rollback.

P.S. Thanks to AuTom for the heads up!