President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he will no longer extend the deadline for the consolidation of jeepneys under the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
The Chief made this announcement on Wednesday during the open forum of the Bagong Pilipinas Town Hall Meeting on Traffic Concerns after he gave jeepney operators until 30 April to join or set up transportation cooperatives or corporations.
"There is no more extension for the consolidation. We really need that," Marcos said.
"What we are ensuring is that the payments and loans of the driver-operators will not be further burdened, which is why we are making that system well-organized and well-managed," Marcos added.
The government's PUV Modernization Program aims to replace old jeepneys with cars with at least a Euro 4-compliant engine to cut down on pollution and replace units that the Land Transportation Office (LTO) said were not safe to drive. The consolidation is the first step in this process.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said that the delay would "give a chance to those who said they wanted to consolidate but did not make the previous cutoff."
Protest marches have been held by several transportation groups against the program. They say they lost their jeepneys when the registrations were moved to transport cooperatives.
Officials say that the cooperatives will be able to get loans from banks and get between P200,000 and P300,000 from the government for each vehicle to help with the costs of the change.
But drivers who are against the phaseout say that getting a new car and joining a cooperative will put them in so much debt that they won't be able to make enough money to live on.
The new plan will make drivers work to a set schedule. This is different from the current method, which lets them work whenever and however they want.
Jeepneys, which were first made from US jeeps that were left over from World War II, are a national sign in the Philippines and are the main way people get around the country.
