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If the plan of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) will push through, the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) will be decongested because the number of buses plying along the said highway will be reduced.

LTFRB chairman Alberto Suansing made the announcement last Wednesday and said that the there is a big oversupply of buses plying EDSA regularly. He further continued that they are keen on reducing the number of buses from 5,000 to 1,000.

The volume-reduction program is just one of its plans, the LTFRB is also planning to implement the franchise attrition wherein buses plying the EDSA route won’t be given a chance to renew their franchise. Suansing also noted that the life span of each bus franchise is only five years, his department is looking into the possibility of amending the franchise of passenger buses.

Provincial buses, on the other hand, might be prohibited from passing EDSA to lessen the traffic, as the agency plans to make it one of the amendments in their franchise agreement.

Claire de la Fuente, president of Integrated Metro Manila Bus Operators Association of the Philippines (IMMBOA  expressed opposition to the LTFRB volume-reduction program. She said the program would greatly affect the income of bus operators and drivers.

“It will not only affect the business of big bus operators in the planned bus reduction but also the more than 400 drivers who will lose their jobs and will dislocated,” de la Fuente said in Filipino.

But according to Suansing, the buses which will be barred from plying along EDSA would be given new routes in Northern and Southern Luzon.