MEMBERS of the academe and a legal expert urged the government on Tuesday, November 19, to overhaul the Public Transport Modernization Program (PTMP) to ensure a just transition for jeepney operators and drivers.
Just transition means making sure that benefits of the modernization program are shared widely and that those who will be affected by it will not be left behind.
Their call comes ahead of the supposed final deadline for individual jeepney operators to consolidate their franchises into a transport cooperative or corporation. Those who fail to comply will no longer be allowed to ply their routes.
Retired UP Los Baños professor Teodoro Mendoza said that, as it stands, the PTMP goes against nine of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, including the first one: No poverty.
“Ang lifeline ng marami ay nasa jeepney… E di lalong dadami ang mga mahihirap kasi mawawalan ng trabaho,” said Mendoza in a webinar organized by the Freedom from Debt Coalition.
He said that instead of forcing jeepney operators to shell out a huge amount of money to consolidate franchises and modernize their units, there should be a transition stage where they are allowed to rehabilitate their old jeepneys at a lower cost.
In his paper on the “blind sides” of the PTMP, Mendoza also pointed out that the current cost of modern jeepneys is too high for transport workers without sufficient government subsidy.
He said that assuming a unit cost of P2.6 million, government financing will not be enough to fully implement fleet upgrades.
Supporters of the program said consolidation will help make the cost of fleet upgrades easier to bear since it will be shared by members of the transport cooperatives.
Mendoza also warned about the modernization program’s inflationary effects since fares would likely go up, along with the cost of transporting goods.
For Atty. Christian Yalung of the Community Legal Help and Public Interest Center, who also wrote a position paper on the issue, the PTMP also contradicts the very reason it was created in the first place.
Yalung noted that the PTMP was launched by the Department of Transportation in 2017 as part of the Philippines’ efforts to abide by the Paris Agreement, which is aimed at combating climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But he pointed out that the program may have even increased greenhouse gas emissions, albeit unintentionally.
Citing numbers from the Land Transportation Office, Yalung said only 6,000 modern jeepneys were added to the public transport system from 2017 to 2022 while there was an average annual increase of 54,000 newly registered cars during the same period. (ABS-CBN News)
