THE Department of Transportation (DOTr) clarified on Wednesday that the supposed “phaseout” of old jeepneys is not slated for end-June. Instead, the deadline is for the consolidation of jeepney entities into cooperatives.
Beyond the June 30 deadline, jeepney drivers may still utilize their old vehicles to ply their routes, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said in a chance interview on Wednesday.
In an apparent acknowledgement of the concerns raised by many quarters, Bautista said operations of the old vehicles cannot be stopped “if we don’t have an ample supply of modern ones,” as this would injure the interest of commuters.
“We will not implement the phaseout of the old equipment on June 30—that deadline is for the operators to consolidate as cooperatives or corporations,” he said.
Organizing themselves as cooperatives or corporations, Bautista said, allows jeepney drivers and operators to work as a group to gain access to loans for the acquisition of modern vehicles.
“We are not asking them to immediately buy modern equipment. What we just wanted to see was they are working to be part of the modernization program,” he added.
The transport chief noted that this is the “fourth time” that the government has extended the deadline for consolidation.
To recall, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) issued in December 2019 a timeline for the consolidation of franchises of land transport operators.
The timeline specified June 2020 as the deadline for consolidation, but the pandemic forced the government to extend it to December 2020.
The regulatory body further extended the deadline to March 2021, and ultimately decided to implement a June 30 cutoff.
The board is also allowing the extension of provisional authorities (PAs) until December 31.
Bautista noted that this can still be extended.
“We can still extend that. We cannot simply stop the operations of the old vehicles if we don’t have an ample supply of modern ones. Our commuters will suffer if we will unilaterally put their operations to a stop. That is why the implementation of the program is in different phases,” he said.
Several transport groups earlier this week warned the government that they will conduct a nationwide transport strike for a week starting March 6 to protest against the Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) Modernization Program.
Commuter network The Passenger Forum (TPF) supports the transport strike, even if this will mean “temporary inconvenience for commuters.”
“The transport strike is the last resort of drivers and operators affected by the PUV Modernization Program. While this means temporary inconvenience for commuters, we support their right to conduct protest actions as the immediate and long-term effects of a haphazard modernization scheme will not be helpful to our aim to make commuting safe, affordable, comfortable, and reliable,” TPF Convener Primo Morillo said in a text message.
He added that given that the transport strike will involve those who are expected to be grossly affected by the PUVMP, “the effects of this week-long strike is a glimpse of what will happen once the government’s modernization plan is forced upon the transport sector.”
“We, thus, appeal to the government to conduct thorough consultations with the affected sectors, to provide more economical and viable modernization options, and to provide higher state subsidy to ensure just transition in our modernization program,” Morillo said.
“Commuters are not against modernization. We just want to remind the government that any attempt at modernization will fail if it will not take into consideration the social costs and the effects of modernization on the lives and livelihood of marginalized sectors.”
Bautista said he has since extended an invitation to these groups for an urgent meeting to discuss their issues on the program.
“I am awaiting their response to my invitation. I have also talked to other organizations of jeepney operators and they were very supportive of the modernization program,” he said. “We are hoping that we could sit down and talk.”
The modernization program calls for the consolidation of the fleet of transport franchise owners, operators, and drivers, to form a business transport cooperative in different areas. This, according to the program’s goals, will allow transport cooperatives to “broaden their financial capacity” in purchasing new units that pass the new standards.
Transport cooperatives are also required to provide drivers with a fixed salary, social security, and health insurance, as they are now considered regular employees. They are also entitled to a loan subsidy of P160,000 per unit vehicle purchased.
Bautista noted that the government is beefing up its subsidy program for the modernization program.
“We have an existing subsidy, but we do have a limited budget for 2023,” he said, noting that the allocation for this year is about P3 billion.
The transport chief expressed hope that PUV stakeholders will support the program moving forward.
“There are areas in the country where they have modern equipment and we are happy that they are supportive of the project. But we acknowledge that there are areas that will be hard to implement this program,” Bautista said.
Latest data from the LTFRB showed that out of 158,000 units of jeepneys in the Philippines, around 96,000 have already consolidated, representing 61 percent of the total.
Out of the 19,000 units of UV Express, 72 percent has already consolidated.
“So far our target is to implement the consolidation. Hopefully, it won’t take three years. However, it’s hard to provide a timeline because there are many different parts to this equation. We really need the support of operators and drivers,” Bautista said.
Image credits: Alysa Salen