Transport group PISTON on Monday launched a “mass filing” for the renewal of provisional authorities, declaring the government’s public utility vehicle modernization program a failure that has decimated the country’s transport supply.
PISTON national president Mody Floranda said the mass filing serves as a protest against a program he claims has stripped 500,000 drivers and operators of their livelihoods.
Citing data from the Department of Transportation (DoTr), Floranda noted that the number of public utility jeepneys nationwide has plummeted from 300,000 before the program began to just 128,000.
“Today is the first wave of our mass filing for franchise renewal. This is a protest by operators who oppose this failed modernization program and a denunciation of a state that continues to destroy our livelihoods,” Floranda said in a statement.
The group argued that drivers who complied with the government’s consolidation requirement have been “drowned in debt,” with many seeing their modernized units repossessed by large cooperatives. Floranda described the current system as being “destroyed” rather than modernized.
Floranda also leveled sharp criticism at President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and former Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon. He alleged that the administration has persisted with the program to serve the interests of foreign auto manufacturers and those seeking to monopolize the national transport system.
PISTON is urging both unconsolidated drivers and those who feel “forced to consolidate” to join their legal movement and break away from what they describe as corrupt or “fake” cooperatives.
To recall, the DoTr has previously defended the program as a necessary step to provide safer, more environmentally friendly transportation for the public, despite ongoing pushback from traditional jeepney sectors.