By ILOILO CITY – The No to PUV Phaseout Coalition Western Visayas, with its members from the drivers, operators, and commuters, held a transport caravan in Iloilo City last May 14 calling for the scrapping of the compulsory franchise consolidation, the PUVMP, and the phasing out of our traditional jeepneys from the road. According to the Coalition, the collective actions of drivers, operators, and commuters in the country have resulted in several extensions of the deadline of consolidation on December 31, 2023, January 31, 2024, and April 30, 2024, and until May 15 this year where unconsolidated units are still allowed to operate.
The series of congressional hearings has already exposed and proved the issues of corruption and abuses inside the cooperatives. Therefore, forcing the operators to consolidate in a cooperative should stop and the fake and failed PUV modernization program should be junked, the Coalition added.
According to Elmer Forro, lead convenor of the NTPPC-WV, around 70,000 individuals, inclusive of drivers, operators, and their families, will be affected once traditional jeepneys are removed from the roads.
For Robert Ventura, the secretary general of the Coalition, so long as there are threats to their livelihood, they will continue to mobilize and fight together with the commuters against the jeepney phaseout.
At the national, transport groups including PISTON held a protest action last May 15 in front of the Supreme Court asking the Court to release the temporary restraining order (TRO) against the PUVMP. Transport groups were expecting that a continuing congressional inquiry on the PUVMP at the House of Representatives would push through today, May 21./PT
