Courtesy: Jeepney phaseout
TRANSPORT group Manibela on Friday said they will launch an “indefinite” transport strike on Monday, October 16, unless their plea for the suspension of the implementation of the jeepney modernization program and the extension of the validity of their franchises are met.
“Monday ang simula kasi may protestang mangyayari. So yung tigil-pasada po, dire-diretso po ito. Kung hanggang saan aabutin yung aming sikmura ng gutom,” Manibela chairman Mar Valbuena said in a press conference and published on ABS-CBN News site.
“Pwede po mangyari na buong linggo talaga. Yun po kasi ang originally na gusto naming gawin, isang linggo talaga na tigil-pasada, isang linggong tigil-pasada at yung protesta po magdidire-diretso depende po sa mapag-uusapan uli namin bukas dahil bukas malaking pagpupulong uli namin,” he added.
The group said jeepney drivers plying 600 of the 785 routes in Metro Manila will join the transport strike Monday while around 1,000 vehicles will convene at the University of the Philippines in Diliman and at the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) office along East Avenue, both in Quezon City, before heading to Mendiola, Manila to call on President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to suspend the implementation of the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVPM).
The modernization program will supposedly lead to the phase-out of hundreds of thousands of traditional jeepneys nationwide.
Valbuena said that by their count, there are 300,000 traditional jeepneys nationwide while only 7,000 are modernized.
The government, he said, only provided for subsidies to modernize 1,000 jeepneys a year.
Aside from the modernization issue, the LTFRB has also required individual traditional jeepney operators to consolidate into a cooperative by the end of the year to pursue modernization.
This will entail forming a juridical entity, registering with the Office of the Transportation Cooperatives or the Securities and Exchange Commission and applying for a franchise consolidation so that they can be issued a provisional authority.
The LTFRB earlier clarified the December 31 deadline is only for consolidation, not for the phaseout of jeepneys.
But Manibela is opposing the requirement to consolidate.
Valbuena said that 80% of those who have consolidated were only forced or did so out of fear.
“Pagka-sinuspend po yung implementasyon ng PUVMP at validity ng aming prangkisa ay walang deadline, titigil na po kami,” he said.
Meanwhile, the group is maintaining its position condemning the alleged corruption in the LTFRB, despite the retraction of Jeff Tumbado, the former executive assistant of suspended LTFRB chair Teofilo Guadiz III.
