A major group of jeepney drivers and operators on Wednesday said it would stage a nationwide strike from Nov. 20 to 23 to protest the government’s modernization program for public utility vehicles (PUVs).
Piston (Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide), which claims a membership of 120,000, had refused to join a similar protest in October organized by Manibela, another transport alliance, but said they would go on strike next week after the government rejected their request to remove the Dec. 31 deadline to form themselves into or join transport cooperatives so they could keep operating.
“This is a massacre on our livelihood through the seizure of our franchise to give way to the monopoly of large corporations in transportation,” the group said in a statement issued in Filipino.
Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chairperson Teofilo Guadiz III and his board members met Wednesday to discuss how the impending transport strike would affect the riding public.
He said he would coordinate with other government agencies and local government units on ways to provide free rides to the public should the strike push through.
The Dec. 31 franchise deadline is the first component of the government’s modernization plan that would eventually phase out traditional jeepneys.
LTFRB spokesperson Celine Pialago said 120,023 units, including public utility buses, have yet to be modernized,
“As of today (Wednesday), there are a total of 129,568 consolidated units for PUJs, UV Express, Mini Bus, and PUBs representing 65.03 percent of overall authorized units,” she said.
The remaining 34.97 percent consists of 69,665 individual franchise holders, she added.
The PUV modernization program started in 2017, aiming to replace jeepneys with vehicles that have at least a Euro 4-compliant engine to reduce pollution, but drivers and operators complained about the high cost of new units.
Transport officials said, however, that traditional jeepneys can still operate beyond the set deadline, provided they join transport cooperatives to prevent “on-street competition” among drivers and operators.
The government originally set a June 30, 2023 deadline, but this was extended to the end of the year after the announcement of a transport strike in March.
The week-long strike was cut short when representatives of Piston and Manibela met with Palace officials.
President Marcos, meanwhile, has said he doesn’t want any driver to lose his job over the PUV modernization program.
The transport strike in October failed to disrupt public transportation largely because other groups, including Piston, had refused to join it.