DAVAO CITY—The country’s pioneer in distributing auto-liquefied petroleum gas (auto-LPG) in the Visayas and Mindanao has offered the Office of the Vice Mayor here its autogas air-conditioned taxis for driver-beneficiaries of a livelihood project.

Ma. Luisa Rivera-Abaya, sales and marketing manager of First Autogas for Southern Mindanao, said the company would offer the taxis already fitted with auto-LPG fuel to Vice Mayor Sara Duterte, who has put up a livelihood for unemployed drivers.

The taxis would be secondhand units to make it affordable to the drivers to pay the unit until they would own them in a few years. “Their daily amortization would be considered under a rent-to-own scheme,” Abaya told the BusinessMirror.

A unit would cost about P150,000.

First Autogas would present its offer to Duterte and her staff.

“Our offer brings with it the assurance of helping the environment, with cleaner air and cheaper biofuel. It’s the cheaper alternative for the drivers,” she said. “This is an industrial-grade LPG, not the one used by households.”

Besides, Abaya added, the company has 14 refilling stations in the Visayas and Mindanao area, seven of which are in Cebu, four in Davao City, two in Bukidnon and one in Cagayan de Oro City.

The Malaysian company Petronas is the LPG supplier of First Autogas, while First Autogas refilling stations are the PTT in Cebu and the Phoenix dealers in Mindanao for diesel, and premium and unleaded gasoline.

A First Autogas press statement quoted James Rockall, managing director of the World LPG Gas Association, as telling the First Philippine Auto-LPG Summit in Manila that “world’s auto-LPG market is growing at 10 percent annually, is one of the most popular, safer, cheaper and cleaner alternatives to gasoline and diesel.”

“LPG is an immediate option that can be introduced at low cost with little infrastructure investment and can provide enormous benefits in emissions reduction,” Rockall said.

Rockall also assured motorists and commuters that “modern autogas vehicles can be as safe as or even safer than gasoline vehicles.”

Liloh Evangelista, chief of staff of Duterte, said the livelihood scheme remained under study, although the project was slated for implementation anytime soon.

Being studied were the payment scheme and the amount, including the identification of the beneficiaries, Evangelista said. She added that Duterte has wanted to offer an easy term to the beneficiaries.

Abaya and Evangelista held initial talks last month on how to ensure that driver-beneficiaries would not default on the program, even though the daily payment of the drivers would go to a special trust fund that would be later used by the drivers.

“This trust fund usually operates as a fund where a paying member of an association or a cooperative would get his share, or the amount that he has paid once the member would decide to stop availing [himself] of a program,” Abaya said.

Abaya said this supposed trust fund could also become a disincentive to drivers when he begins to think that he would rather claim back his payment in lump sum than finishing the rent-to-own scheme. “This may become an option during times of personal or family emergency,” she said.

Evangelista said safeguards would include a discussion on whether to release the driver’s share in the trust fund in a case of default, saying that “we don’t like to encourage drivers to leave the project just because the driver knows that he can take back the total amount that he has paid since.”

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DAVAO CITY—The country’s pioneer in distributing auto-liquefied petroleum gas (auto-LPG) in the Visayas and Mindanao has offered the Office of the Vice Mayor here its autogas air-conditioned taxis for driver-beneficiaries of a livelihood project.

THE Philippines is inching closer toward achieving the status of a “mining country” as mining investments continue to pour in, despite the strong opposition to the government’s mining-revitalization program by various sectors.