ILOILO City – This city’s pioneering transport cooperatives, once hailed as models of compliance with the government’s Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP), are now on the brink of collapse.
Seven of the city’s 14 cooperatives are already past due on government bank loans, with several more teetering toward foreclosure, revealed Councilor Sedfrey Cabaluna, chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s transportation committee.
Without urgent financial and legislative intervention from Congress and the Department of Transportation (DOTr), Iloilo City’s transport modernization drive could unravel, leaving drivers, operators, and commuters stranded, he warned in a privilege speech before the City Council on Oct. 1.
Iloilo City was among the earliest to comply when the DOTr launched the PUVMP in 2017. As the city government drafted the Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP), local transport cooperatives organized and borrowed millions from government banks under the Program Assistance to Support Alternative Driving Approaches (PASADA), which carried a six percent interest over seven years.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Pandemic-era relief — including suspended payments and a government subsidy of P160,000 per unit — offered only temporary reprieve to the transport cooperatives. Now, repayment terms have caught up, and the burden is crushing operators, said Cabaluna.
“Our transport cooperatives answered the government’s call for modernization. They organized, invested, and complied. But now they are drowning in debt because of systemic delays and lack of sustained support,” he lamented.
Filing a proposed resolution, Cabaluna called on Congress and the DOTr to provide subsidies, direct financial assistance, and legislative remedies to save the Iloilo City transport cooperatives from bankruptcy and secure the investments of drivers and operators who risked everything for modernization.
“Iloilo City’s modernization program should not be derailed by financial collapse. The national government must step in to protect our cooperatives and ensure the continuity of public transport services,” said Cabaluna./PN
