MANILA, Philippines--A Makati City-based transport group assailed the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) on Tuesday for its alleged failure to finance the group's venture to manufacture jeepneys powered by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Gonzalo Cerio, president of Makati Jeepney Drivers and Operators Alliance Inc. (MJODA), said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had promised to set aside P1 billion to fund the project.

The President, he said, assured transport groups that the funds would be available as loans to individuals and groups who would convert their diesel-fed jeepneys to LPG-powered ones.

Cerio also slammed DOTC Undersecretary Anneli Lontoc after she supposedly mocked their initiatives to promote LPG-run public utility jeepneys.

With the help of Better Alternative AutoLPG Co. Inc., he said they were able to produce two prototypes to prove that local assemblers could manufacture LPG-fed jeepneys better than the imported LPG jeepney engines from Japan.

"Instead of helping us, (Lontoc) even ridiculed us. She questioned our capacity to pay the loans," an emotional Cerio said in a news briefing.

Conrado Sinchioco, MJODA vice president, said they sent several letters to Lontoc asking assistance for the project, but the DOTC official deliberately ignored their requests.

He said the project would have benefited 6,000 drivers and operators of jeepneys plying Makati.

Sinchioco said they were alarmed after a DOTC official admitted that the agency had already used P700 million of the funds meant for the conversion of diesel-powered jeepneys.

To dramatize their appeal, Cerio said they would burn the prototype jeepneys during their planned rally in Chino Roces Bridge next week.