‘Bitter Christmas gift’: Piston-Cebu condemns deadline decision on traditional jeepney phaseout

Some members of Piston-Cebu held a protest along Gorordo Avenue in Cebu City, as part of a transport strike against the PUV Modernization Program. | CDN Photo / Pia Piquero

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Transport group Piston-Cebu sarcastically described the decision of the Marcos administration to not extend the December 31 deadline for the consolidation of public utility vehicle (PUV) operators a “Christmas present.”

This after on December 14, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) signed the Memorandum Circular 2023-051, stating that all consolidated Transport Service Entity (TSE) and operators who filed applications for consolidation on or before December 31 will continue to operate.

But those operators without TSEs will be revoked by January 1, 2024, which means that they will no longer be allowed to operate by then.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. already expressed that he does not allow extensions for the year-end deadline.

“PISTON-Cebu condemns in the strongest possible terms the issuance of a memorandum from the LTFRB expressly revoking the franchises of jeepneys and UV express vehicles which refuse to ‘consolidate’ by the end of the year!” Piston-Cebu said.

Further, the transport group said that LTFRB’s memo is a bitter “Christmas Gift” for drivers, operators, and their families.

“It also spells the worsening of the public traffic crisis for the commuters, especially those who depend on cheap public transport,” Piston-Cebu added.

To continue campaigning

Despite the issuance of the memorandum, Piston-Cebu said that they will continue to launch campaign activities against the phaseout of traditional jeepneys, UV Express vehicles, and other types of PUVs that are affected by the PUV modernization program.

“The prospect of not being able to ply their routes starting January 1, 2024, is far outweighed by the consequences of joining the consolidation process. Such includes losing the operators’ control over his jeepney and franchise, and therefore, losing his control over his livelihood; being forced to fork over more money to join a cooperative or corporation, and for applying for the consolidation itself; and losing more income because the cooperative or corporation is obliged to buy expensive, imported, and non-sustainable ‘Modern’ Minibuses,” Piston-Cebu said.

They argued that modern vehicles are not sustainable because their spare parts are expensive and need to be imported, whereas traditional jeepneys have locally available maintenance and spare parts.

“In the end, the operators will lose their livelihood, as what happened to operators who bewailed that the minibuses they bought were repossessed by the banks for their failure to pay their debt,” they added.

Last December 14 and 15, Piston-Cebu joined the strike led by its parent organization, Piston, to protest against LTFRB’s deadline for franchise consolidation applications. /clorenciana

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