A party-list lawmaker on Thursday thumbed down the proposed jeepney modernization program of the Duterte administration, saying the plan will only lead to impending fare hikes for commuters and massive displacement of jeepney drivers and operators.
ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro also urged the Duterte administration to reevaluate their jeepney modernization plan even as she stressed that “genuine modernization of the transport system should be safe, efficient, affordable and nationalized.”
“The jeepney modernization plan of the Department of Transportation will only upgrade jeepney units and rationalize routes but will not modernize the system of public transportation,” ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro said.
“The proposed modernization plan will only lead to small operators under huge debt and many displaced drivers,” he added.
The Department of Transportation earlier said a unit of the modernized jeepney will cost P1.8 million.
The government said it will only subsidize P80,000 per unit and will give the operator five percent equity, six percent interest and seven years to pay for a unit.
“Expensive modernized jeepneys will only lead to fare hikes with the proposed subsidy package of the government,” Castro said. “Operators will not be able to afford the new units and will only pass the burden to commuters.”
“Public transportation is a public service and should therefore be subsidized by the government,” Castro added. “With the current system, the government will depend on big private companies to operate our public transport vehicles like what they are doing with the MRT and the LRT.”
She stressed that phasing out the jeepneys also does not solve the traffic problem and air pollution in the country.
“The government reports that PUJs only account for two percent of vehicle population in Metro Manila. Majority of registered vehicles in our country are private vehicles which cause heavy traffic in large volumes and also emit pollutant smoke. The government should not single out the jeepneys if their objective is to solve the traffic problem and air pollution in the country,” Castro said.
“Any attempt to modernize should not mean the massive displacement of operators and drivers. We are not against modernization and we are in fact pushing for a genuine, mass-oriented nationalist and democratic modernization of the whole transport system in the country,” Castro added.
Castro made her sentiments known during the public hearing conducted by the House committee on transportation on Thursday on the government’s proposed modernization program for public transport vehicles.
Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, however, failed to attend the committee hearing headed by Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento.
Present during the hearing were officials of the Land Transportation and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and transport groups led by Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON), with the discussion centering on the meaning of the word “phase out.”
LTFRB board member Aileen Lizada said the intention of the program was to only modernize jeepneys.
“There is no LTFRB memorandum phasing out the jeepneys,” said Lizada. “The jeepney denomination will not be phased out.”
Under the proposed jeepney modernization program, jeepneys older than 15 years will be replaced with electric-powered and Euro 4-compliant vehicles that cost around P1.4 million to P1.6 million per unit.
The proposal was rejected by PISTON, which they claimed would only lead to the loss of jobs of many jeepney drivers and a substantial increase in fares.
The group said it is not against the idea of modernization program. But it is against what they called the “massacre” of the livelihood of some drivers and their operators and its effect to ordinary passengers.
PISTON president George San Mateo said the program would only be used as a “milking cow” of the rich and some unscrupulous government officials.
LTFRB chair Martin Delgra III said the LTFRB has consulted stakeholders several times, including the ones from PISTON, Pasang Masda, FEJODAP; and that it is on its way in implementing the program soon.
As this developed, cause-oriented group Movement Against Tyranny said that President Rodrigo Duterte’s paranoid accusation that striking jeepney drivers and their supporters are committing rebellion, and his decision to phaseout all public utility jeepneys (PUJs) by next year, put large segments of the public at great risk of harassment, penury and even death.
“By categorically declaring that the recent two-day transport strike against the government’s jeepney modernization program by jeepney drivers and their supporters was an act of rebellion, Duterte is, in effect, declaring a legitimate exercise of a constitutional right illegal. This sets a dangerous precedent in that similar exercises of the right to assemble and seek redress may also be considered as acts of rebellion by the Executive and his cohorts,” the group said in a statement.
They said Duterte’s paranoid rant not only sends a chilling effect on the public but is a frontal attack on the citizens’ civil and political rights.
It added that the statement might be taken by his rabid supporters as a go-signal to file harassment cases against protesters, engage in political persecution or worse, spur state security forces and state-backed vigilante groups to target the opposition and government critics, they said.
The group added that by arbitrarily announcing that all PUJs will be phased out by next year, Duterte has scrapped the original 3 to 5 year phaseout period proposed by proponents of the modernization program.
“This unrealistic timetable is ridiculous and oppressive in the light of the many valid issues and concerns raised by the drivers regarding the phaseout – from the exorbitant prices of the replacement jeepney units, the high financing rates to be charged, to the multi-billion foreign corporate agenda behind the program,” the group said.
“Worse, Duterte’s expedited phaseout puts 650,000 jeepney drivers, operators and their families at great risk of losing their livelihood by next year, leading to their further impoverishment. But, then again, as the President himself said in his speech, he doesn’t care: ‘Mahirap kayo? Putang ina. Magtiis kayo sa hirap at gutom. Wala akong pakialam’,” they said.
Duterte’s dangerous and insensitive tirades against his critics, especially the poor, are the latest acts of tyranny committed by the highest official of the land, the group said.
“Duterte should apologize to the jeepney drivers for his illegal and insensitive remarks and immediately take back his statements and his plan to force his expensive modernization program down our throats,” they said.