SEN. Grace Poe urged concerned agencies to provide alternative livelihood to jeepney drivers who lost their jobs due to the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
In a statement, Poe said concerned government agencies should make the training and employment opportunities “being touted” available to thousands of jeepney drivers, especially the older ones, who have been displaced for their failure to consolidate into cooperatives.
“The strong push for the PUVMP should be matched with greater safety nets for the drivers and operators who became casualties of the program. We also call on LTFRB (Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board) to address the commuters’ complaints about the lack of PUVs in a number of routes since the threat of apprehension on the consolidated jeepneys started,” said Poe, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Services.
She added that the “unconsolidated jeepneys in 313 routes” in the National Capital Region “by no stretch of imagination can we say that we have sufficient PUVs on the road for our commuters.”
Last May 16, the LTFRB started apprehending jeepney drivers who failed to consolidate their public utility vehicles into cooperatives by the April 30 deadline.
The LTFRB said that unconsolidated PUVs still plying their routes will face a one-year suspension while their operators will be slapped a P5,000 penalty and their vehicles impoundment.
It said there are around 1,900 unconsolidated jeepneys in Metro Manila alone that would no longer be part of the PUVMP.
