Senator Lito Lapid is seeking protection for the food delivery riders of Grab, Food Panda and other delivery services, saying it is “not just and proper” to financially burden them due to fake bookings and unjustified cancellations of delivery orders.
In Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate Committee on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, Lapid cited the need to protect food delivery drivers who fell prey to unconscionable customers who cancel confirmed orders or even fail to show up at the delivery address, despite the fact that the rider had already paid the ordered items.
Meanwhile, Senator Richard Gordon has suggested amendments to Senate Bill 2057, or the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021 to allow the procurement by international humanitarian organizations of vaccines to ensure that the most vulnerable could be inoculated.
Gordon wants the bill to include a provision that would state that international organizations such as the Red Cross Movement, particularly the Philippine Red Cross, may procure vaccines for the use of individuals consistent with the priority list set.
Lapid’s Senate Bill 1677, or the Food and Grocery Delivery Services Protection Act, describes the delivery riders of food and grocery delivery service applications as “frontliners who take the risk and continue working and providing for our needs during the community quarantine and lockdown. Macon Ramos-Araneta
“Food and grocery delivery riders take on a crucial role in our day to day lives especially during the current health crisis,” Lapid said.
“As such, they are being considered one of the more important front line workers as they provide convenience and access to a large percentage of our population despite all the health and safety risks they face just to earn a living.”
Lapid’s measure aims to require service providers “to establish a mandatory reimbursement scheme for the cancellation of orders and the customers to submit proof of identity and residential address.”
The bill also provides that a customer who will cancel their orders three times in a month will face maximum of six months in jail and a P100,000 fine.
In the same hearing, the service provider of Food Panda Philippines said that since they started operating, they have not reimbursed riders to cover the amount of goods being asked by customers.
Nicka Hosaka Grab told the committee chaired by Senator Koko Pimentel III they had removed advance payments being made by their riders last August 2020. They paid their riders which encountered this problem.
According to Hosaka, Grab had a system before that once a “No show” was reported within an hour, they reimbursed the payments to their riders.
