A recent bill has seen the proposal of a Universal Beep Card as a unified method of payment for all commuters in Metro Manila. The goal here is simple: remove the inconveniences of having multiple portals and complicated methods of cashless payments, to entice riders into actually adopting this practice instead of sticking to cash.

This was brought up through House Bill 4913 or the Universal Beep Card Bill. According to its author Quezon City 5th district Rep. PM Vargas, this will “remove barriers of expensive and unnecessary costs of public transportation.” As a member of the House Committee on Metro Manila’s development, many are inclined to believe that this hypothesis is the result of countless hours of research efforts and observations on the ground.

The Beep Card used in our local trains and bus lines is different from the BEEPRides card used for our jeepneys, which causes mass confusion amongst the public. So much so, that the government had to release a statement back in 2020 to address the issue.

Many who aren’t tech-savvy and just need to get from Point A to Point B end up just using cash, which is inefficient since it requires human interaction through outdated methods such as the traditional passing of coins and manual counting of change. It may not be such a big waste of time on its own, but add these all together and these sum up to the traffic situation we have here in Metro Manila.

As such, one can say that this Universal Beep Card program benefits not only the commuting public but all citizens in general. Using a Beep Card is now easier than ever, especially since it can be loaded up from the convenience of the application. It’s also compatible with NFC making for a hassle-free experience that can be completed just about anywhere.

If this comes into reality, then we could be one step closer to a world-class public transport system and this could also help decongest our city streets.

Featured image c/o Metro News Central