House leader fears fare surge
A HOUSE leader on Wednesday expressed fearS that the supposed involvement of Grab Philippines to the motorcycle (MC) taxi sector could allegedly result to a surge in fare.
During the House committee on Metro Manila development hearing, Marikina City 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo asked the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to take a serious look into the matter.
Quimbo said Grab has an alleged previous behavior on fare hike after procuring its sole transport network vehicle service (TNVS) rival Uber in 2018.
“It’s because shortly after the acquisition of Uber by Grab, nagkaroon ng (there was an) increase in prices in that period after that acquisition,” Quimbo said during her interpellation of Anton Arcilla of the PCC Mergers and Acquisitions Office.
“Tama po, ‘yun po ‘yung isa sa mga dangers na nais tigilan ng PCC,” Arcilla said in response.
Recently, Grab bought Move It, an MC taxi service.
Some people said the transaction could repeat the Grab-Uber deal.
Quimbo also asked Arcilla about Grab’s compliance with the alleged overcharging issue.
“Sa ngayon po…maaari din po itong i-confirm ng Grab–patuloy po na inaaral ng komisyon ang compliance ng Grab at humihingi po kami ng information at documents po from Grab to show compliance with the commitments that they agreed to back in 2018,” Arcilla said.
“Parang hindi ko yata matanggap na hinihintay ninyo sa regulated entity ang kanilang compliance,” Quimbo said.
