The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is calling on jeepney drivers and operators to join the public utility vehicle (PUV) consolidation before April 30, as failure to meet the deadline will result in the revocation of their franchises.
“Again, I have to reiterate, this is only until April 30. We need to consolidate because that is the first part of the modernization program,” Teofilo Guadiz III, LTFRB chairperson, said at a recent press briefing.
Last January, the Marcos administration extended anew the deadline for the PUV consolidation due to the strong clamor of transport groups.
Guadiz said the extension given by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is the last to be extended to them.
“We are asking now the jeepney operators to avail of the last extension because come April 30, we will no longer allow those who did not consolidate to ply the routes of Metro Manila,” Guadiz said.
The franchises of those who fail to meet the consolidation deadline will be revoked by the LTFRB, which will prohibit them from plying Metro Manila routes, Guadiz added.
“We will revoke those franchises, and we will only be allowing those who have consolidated to ply the routes of Metro Manila,” he said.
The three-month extension for the PUV consolidation aims to give an opportunity to those who expressed the intention to consolidate but did not make the previous cutoff.
The Department of Transportation expects the consolidation rate to reach 85 percent by the end of the three-month extension period, from over 70 percent last January.
Last January, over 97 percent of the total 22,284 registered public utility jeepneys in Metro Manila joined the consolidation. Over 1,000 have failed to join the consolidation last December 31 and are expected to apply until April.
As of January, there are 32 models of modern jeepneys plying the roads around the country which are either locally manufactured or locally assembled jeepneys.
In a related development, Guadiz announced the indefinite suspension of the awarding of an additional 10,000 slots of transport network vehicle service (TNVS).
Last March 27, Guadiz said the additional 10,000 TNVS units would provide more jobs for Filipinos.
“As of today, we have only 23,000. And because we feel the need for more players because there is a seeming deficiency in public transportation, we awarded 10,000 (slots),” he had said.
However, in deference again to the clamor of the transport sector, LTFRB is postponing indefinitely the awarding of the slots to other players, said Guadiz.
He said the indefinite postponement will continue until the LTFRB can determine the sufficient number of TNVS vehicles needed for Metro Manila through a thorough computation.
Guadiz said in the previous administration, a calculation indicated that the maximum capacity for TNVS in Metro Manila is 65,000 vehicles.
Earlier, he said adding 10,000 TNVS slots will not negatively affect the jeepneys and tricycles since they have different markets.
