Bicol Central Stn only earns 50% of pre-pandemic monthly revenues

By Jason B. Neola

NAGA CITY --- The Bicol Central Station (BCS) here, the leading local enterprise of LGU Naga, has begun to take steps towards recovery from its losses due to the pandemic.

Roderick Reforsado, BCS manager, said that his office has started to earn a monthly revenue of P2 million from January to March, this year, when passenger buses were given permits by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to ply inter-provincial routes.

The amount is only 50 percent of the P4 million monthly revenue that the facility has been earning before the pandemic.

In February 2020, or two weeks before the entire Luzon was placed under extreme community quarantine (ECQ), the facility was able to earn a monthly revenue of P5 million, the biggest income in a month since it started operation.

The figure, however, had drastically went down to P2.6 million in March due to the crisis; no income in April, only P20,015.00 in May and more than P1 million in the following months except October when the terminal registered an income of P798,112.20.

Reforsado said that his office has to implement cost-cutting measures to be able to minimize the facility’s expenses and cope with the current situations.

“We have to adjust our working days, save on electricity, water, and gasoline including office supplies and materials, and suspend for the meantime the projects that need procurement, we even cut our allowances on meals and snacks during the conduct of management committee meetings and other gatherings,” Reforsado said.