CEBU CITY, Philippines – Amid threats of a transport strike, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7) will hold a public hearing on five transport groups’ petition to raise jeepney fare to P8.50.Romulo Bernardes, LTFRB-7 regional director, said Tuesday the public hearing will be held at the LTFRB-7 office at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. The hearing will discuss the petition filed by Cebu Integrated Transport Services Cooperative (Citrasco), Visayas United Transport Cooperative (Vudtrasco) and the transport cooperatives from Danao, Carmen and Liloan. They are members of 1-United Transport Koalisyon (1-Utak). The transport groups originally asked for a P1.50 fare hike in their petition last November, but amended this to P2.50 on June 3 due to the continuing rise in fuel prices. Ryan Yu, Citrasco managing director and 1-Utak vice chairman, said they will push through with a strike on June 16 if there is no action on their petition and their request for an additional 50 centavos provisional fare increase. Yu said that Bernardes told him yesterday that the LTFRB official would try his best to give a fair and positive response to the transport groups’ request before June 15. Bernardes said he had invited to the hearing representatives from the Commission on Audit (COA), Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), students from the University of San Carlos (USC), University of the Philippines (UP), University of the Visayas (UV), University of Cebu (UC), University of San Jose Recoletos (USJR), consumer groups and local government units. Yu said that Bernardes will fly to Manila within the week to transmit the inputs of the hearing to the LTFRB Central Office. /Reporter Nilda Gallo and Correspondent Ara Chawdhury | 
