MANILA – Sen. Grace Poe will press the Department of Transportation (DOTr) for its transport modernization plan and the delayed release of subsidies for drivers when the Senate discusses the agency’s 2019 budget.
The government has proposed a P74.3-billion budget for the DOTr next year.
The financial aid to jeepney drivers who will be affected by the jeepney modernization program is “insufficient,” Poe said.
“Kapag nag-budget [hearing] tayo, tatanungin natin ang DOTr: Alam niyo ang binibigay ninyong [ayuda] na P80,000 per driver ay parang kulang naman yata iyon … Iti-trade-in [ang sasakyan] pero parang P80,000 lang ang kapalit,” said the chair of the Senate committee on public services.
While she is not against modernization, Poe said she wants to know how the program is being implemented.
The government, she said, needs to provide drivers the means to procure new vehicles without burdening them unjustly.
“Dapat ayusin nila ang proseso para hindi naman mahirapan ang mga drivers,” she said. “Alam mo 600,000 drivers ang apektado dito. Kapag nagkansela sila ng mga ruta, ano’ng kapalit noon?”
She added: “At papaano naman sila [drivers] makakabili ng jeep na P1.2 million hanggang P1.8 million [ang halaga] kung ang ibibigay mo lang ay P80,000 na pang-down payment?”
Meanwhile Poe lamented the partial release of the subsidies for jeepney drivers under the tax reform package.
“Kailangan din nating malaman kung papaano ba nila ipinamamahagi ang mga fuel vouchers na parang walang nakakatanggap at kung may makakatanggap man, 25 percent lang,” she said./PN
