Probe urged on ‘passed-on’ discounts
A legislator is seeking a congressional inquiry into claims that ride-hailing services and food delivery platforms are making their drivers and delivery couriers pay for mandatory discounts for senior citizens and persons with disability (PWDs).
Senior Citizens Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes filed House Resolution No. 2134 asking the House of Representatives to look into allegations that ride-hailing service and food delivery firms “fail to apply the legally mandated discounts for senior citizens and PWDs in transactions made by these eligible individuals through their applications or websites, and unlawfully transfer the cost of these discounts to their partner-drivers.”
Ordanes said that such companies found to be shifting the cost of providing discounts to their drivers and riders should have their franchise suspended.
The lawmaker claimed, “Ride-hailing and food delivery applications compel their drivers to absorb the costs associated with senior citizen and PWD discounts, thereby further diminishing the already limited earnings of these drivers.”
‘Malicious practice’
According to Ordanes, the “malicious practice” ran counter to the objectives of Republic Act No. 9994, or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, and RA 7277, or the Magna Carta for PWDs, of honoring the elderly and PWDs by lessening their financial burden through a 20-percent discount and value-added tax exemption on their purchases and transportation fare.
“The practice of ride-hailing applications to force its drivers to shoulder senior citizen and PWD discounts is in direct violation of their mandate under Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Memorandum Circular No. 2015-016, which expressly provides that transport network companies should shoulder the burden of the said discounts,” Ordanes stressed.
The lawmaker pointed out, “This conduct by ride-hailing and food delivery applications is utterly deplorable, as it constitutes criminal and exploitative behavior toward the nearly 10 million senior citizens and approximately 1.4 million PWDs who increasingly rely on these services for their day-to-day needs, and the thousands of their partner-drivers that rely on them for their everyday subsistence.”
“Despite the declining financial capabilities of senior citizens, PWDs, and even the partner drivers of these mobile platforms, ride-hailing and food delivery applications, which earn millions of pesos daily continue to neglect their legal obligation,” he added.
