The Silang Transport Service and Development Cooperative has launched its eco-friendly public utility vehicles for commuters in Cavite.
Assisted by the Department of Trade and Industry, the service provider introduced its 23 new and modernized units to provide service in Imus City and Silang, said officials of the cooperative, a beneficiary of DTI’s Shared Service Facility Program.
Through the financial assistance of the Department of Budget and Management and the effort of Silang Transport’s Manager Sulpicio Arellano, the Cooperative successfully paved the way to offer and run the first ecological and conducive PUV in the province.
provide service in Imus City and Silang, Cavite
They demonstrated their readiness to serve the public by observing social distancing and other health protocols with their passengers.
According to Arellano, the eco-friendly PUVs were their answer to the government’s call for a nature-friendly transportation system and the LGUs’ call to service commuters plying from Silang to Imus and Silang to Tagaytay and vice-versa.
Routes will be stretched once the new normal is in place in the province, the officials said.
Established in 1991, 15 individuals from different transport associations in Silang joined and worked for the registration of the Silang Transport.
They started their business and services to members by applying passenger utilities jeepney franchise from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
In 2013, the DTI 4-A through its SSF program awarded the Silang Transport Service and Development Cooperative with equipment like a hydraulic pipe bender, universal sheet bender, sheet metal cutter, acetylene torch, and welding machine for body fabrication and repair.
The Cooperative was able to increase its services to the members on repairs up to 15 percent, assemble additional cooperative owned unit, and increase motor shop income to 10 percent, greatly improving their production and capacity to address the needs of its members.
Through the SSF, members and member-drivers continue to use the equipment to their modernized PUVs in terms of maintenance and repair.
At present, the Cooperative has 174 member operators.
“We would like to congratulate the Silang Transport Service and Development Cooperative for this achievement. You have proven that there are, indeed, many ways to thrive amid this pandemic through a sheer amount of perseverance, optimism, and determination. We really believe that through the relentless effort and convergence of the government and the private sector, we will be able to survive in this crisis,” said DTI Calabarzon Director Marilou Toledo.
The Department’s SSF is a national program that aims to improve the competitiveness of the micro, small, and medium by providing them with machinery, equipment, tools, systems, skills and knowledge under a shared system.
The SSF program is being implemented nationwide by the DTI-Regional Operations Group headed by Undersecretary Blesila Lantayona.