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DoTr asks Senate to reconsider PUVMP suspension

By Rose de la Cruz

Even as 22 senators have stated support for a resolution seeking to suspend the government’s jeepney modernization program to stop jeopardizing the livelihood of drivers and other stakeholders, the Department of Transportation passed a 100-page letter to Senate Presdient Francis “Chiz” Escudero dated July 29 to reconsider suspending the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program.

In Senate Resolution 1096, the senators cited the urgent need to thoroughly review and reassess the impact of the program “to alleviate the fears of the drivers and transport operators who will be directly burdened by its implementation.”

“More consideration and clarifications are needed to be made by the Department of Transportation in order to address the concerns voiced by affected stakeholders, especially the drivers,” the resolution stated.

It is a sense of the Senate resolution, which expresses the chamber’s stance on the modernization issue.

Only Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel did not sign the resolution, reported Business World. But Senator Robinhood Padilla signed the resolution with reservations.

“The error of the DoTr was to focus on consolidation and vehicle replacement rather than on route restructuring first,” Rene S. Santiago, a founding member of the Transportation Science Society of the Philippines, told Business World. 

Senate President Francis G. Escudero earlier sought to suspend the program since operators are finding it difficult to buy expensive modern jeepneys, which cost at least P2.6 million.

The deadline for jeepneys to consolidate into cooperatives lapsed on Dec. 31, 2023  but public utility vehicles had been allowed to keep operating until Jan 31 this year. The President later extended the deadline to April 30.

The modernization program started in 2017, aiming to replace traditional jeepneys with units that have at least a Euro 4-compliant engine to cut pollution.

Transport groups have asked the Supreme Court to halt the modernization program, which they said is illegal.

“These small stakeholders, particularly the drivers who remain unconsolidated are effectively forced out of their livelihoods, with most of them expressing that the only skill they have is driving,” the senators said in the resolution. 

Proposed Senate Resolution No. 1096, which was authored and signed by 22 of the 23 remaining senators following Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara’s appointment as education secretary, calls for the program to be put on hold “pending the resolution of valid and urgent concerns raised by affected drivers, groups, unions, and transport cooperatives with the end in view [of] ensuring a more efficient and inclusive implementation of the PTMP,” reported the Inquirer.

The initial phase of the program requires jeepney operators and drivers to consolidate, join or form cooperatives to ply their routes and to avail themselves of government assistance in modernizing and managing their fleets, among other services, as part of the phaseout process for traditional jeepneys and their replacement with so-called eco-friendly but pricey modern units, to be partly subsidized by government.

The senators noted that 36,217 PUV units or around 19 percent of PUVs and other vehicles failed to consolidate despite the April 30 deadline because the government failed to properly educate the drivers, operators, and transport groups about the program and the cost of shouldering the modern PUVs, which exceeds their financial capacities.

The Inquirer said that earlier this week, transport groups supporting the program threatened to go on strike and not vote for senators who sign the resolution.

DoTr Secretary Jaime Bautista submitted a 100-page letter to Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero regarding the suspension of the Public Transportation Modernization Program (PTMP), reported Star business editor/columnist Iris Gonzales.

Bautista said the PTMP does not require PUV operators and drivers to immediately purchase modern PUVs upon consolidation but modernization will occur gradually over the next three to four years after the consolidation deadline.

He said the gas emission-compliant modern jeepney units available on the market are not limited to imported units but some are locally-produced by popular jeepney makers to preserve the cultural heritage while adhering to global emission standards.

In defending the PTMP, Bautista cited the stakeholder impact (since majority have complied and support the program) and resource utilization of investments sank into the program. For 2024 alone, he said, the government already appropriated P1.6 billion for the program.

Bautista claimed that the program’s utilization rate is already at 53 percent of the P7.5-billion budget from 2018 to 2024. Suspending the program now risks wasting these investments and incurring additional costs to reestablish similar initiatives in the future. Consolidation as of April 30 reached 83.38 percent with 159,862 out of the 1919,730 baseline units consolidated.

In total, there are 6,090 consolidated routes for PUJs, UVEs (UV Express), minibuses and PUBs (public utility buses), data from DOTr also showed.

A temporary suspension might not only halt the positive momentum of the program, but could also have unintended negative consequences.”

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