Presidential Adviser on Poverty Alleviation Secretary Larry Gadon on Thursday called on jeepney drivers and operators to take advantage of the three-month extension to embrace the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program.

“Drivers will not be out of work if the operators will become more cooperative, open-minded and care about progress and true public safety and convenience,” Gadon said.

The extension was given to those drivers and operators who have yet to register as cooperatives and corporations under the PUVMP, which mandates the transition to more ecologically friendly vehicles.

“The drivers are not the problem. Their operators do not want to shell out the capital; they want to earn more with their old jeepneys,” Gadon said.

Without the extension, unregistered drivers and operators would have been barred from plying their routes come 1 February.

Those who have not registered said they could not afford the expensive modern jeepneys said to cost upward of P2.5 million per unit. Local manufacturers, however, said they have PUVMP-compliant units selling for just under P1 million.

The women’s group Gabriela on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order againt the PUVMP.

Gabriela secretary general Clarice Palce said hundreds of thousands of PUV drivers, operators and their families would lose their livelihood with the PUVMP implementation.

She said more Filipinos would sink into poverty and more children would lose the ability to study.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday extended until 30 April the deadline for the consolidation of PUVs, which lapsed last 31 December 2023.

The PUVMP seeks to modernize and consolidate the fragmented PUV industry and to upgrade or replace PUVs that are older than 15 years to comply with environmental and safety standards.