LTFRB turns down appeal to allow jeepneys to ply under GCQ

Cebuanos await for rides to go home as public transport continues to be limited despite the general community quarantine (GCQ) in the entire Central Visayas. Contributed Photo | Liloan Mayor Christina Frasco

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has denied the appeal of Liloan Mayor and League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) – Cebu president Christina Frasco to already allow public utility jeepneys (PUJs) to be granted special permits to operate under the general community quarantine (GCQ).

Frasco said the LTFRB explained to her that buses are the “preferred” mode of transportation and that jeepneys belong to the lower hierarchy of priority in the issuance of the special permits, which are required for public utility vehicles to return to the streets.

Frasco announced the development on her Facebook account this Tuesday afternoon, June 9, 2020.

“A simple reading of the LTFRB Memorandum would reveal that PUVs/PUJs are NOT prohibited. In fact, the Memorandum even lays down the requirements for [the] passenger capacity of PUJs. Unfortunately, our pleas for a reasonable application of the LTFRB’s policy remains unheeded because they prefer only buses to the exclusion of over a thousand PUVs that traditionally served the northern routes that could help ease the transport woes of our people,” Frasco said.

Frasco’s appeal for the agency to allow PUJs to ply the roads again came after the first week of the implementation of the GCQ in the entire Cebu island, which also saw passengers got stranded on the streets while waiting for a ride to their workplaces.

“Because of the severe lack of alternative modes of public transportation under the design of LTFRB, workers wait along the National Highway a long time, mostly in vain, for a ride. As a consequence, many of them either arrive to work late or are absent,” Frasco said on her post.

“Some who are unable to successfully compete in the cramped and mad rush to ride a bus, sadly, have to walk several kilometers to get to work,” she added.

In a virtual press conference earlier, LTFRB-7 Eduardo Montealto Jr. said their agency has already issued special permits for 775 public utility buses regionwide, of which majority or 380 units ar deployed in Cebu.

Montealto also affirmed that in the issuance of special permits, their highest priority is the buses, followed by the modern jeepneys and the point-to-point UV express or v-hires. The traditional jeepneys are in the second to the last priority, ahead only of the tourist transport vehicles.

Montealto also said that the agency is making sure there is no oversupply of vehicles in the determined routes considering that the entire region is still under general community quarantine.

“We will deploy buses through special permits [by phase]. Phase one is already deployed during the period until [June] 15. We will see if there will be an improvement or the label (community quarantine status) will be lowered down, maybe we can add some deployment,”Montealto said. /rcg