Poe to LTFRB: Get PUV routes back ASAP

PRECIOUS RIDE As employees are gradually recalled to their workplaces amid the pandemic, people spend longer time in the queue to get a ride, like these commuters on Monday at the North Avenue station of the Edsa Carousel, a bus rapid transit line along Metro Manila’s busiest thoroughfare. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANde

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Grace Poe urged the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) on Wednesday to fast-track its decision on allowing more public utility vehicles (PUVs) to return to their routes.

Poe made the call ahead of the face-to-face classes opening to “spare workers and students” from “dehumanizing conditions” while chasing after PUVs or spending hours waiting for their public transport to arrive.

READ: As PH transport crisis worsens, workers say traffic, lack of rides are draining them

According to the senator, opening more PUV routes is a viable solution to avert commuter pandemonium when the “majority of the 28 million students, mixed with millions more workers, go out on the streets for a ride to their destinations and back home.”

“We have had enough scenes of dehumanizing conditions of commuters when they have to bear long lines, elbow their way to get inside a vehicle, stand up for hours in a bus or even hitch a ride,” Poe said in a statement.

She lamented that buses deployed only run in main thoroughfares and do not service secondary roads where residences are usually situated.

Aside from augmenting transportation, LTFRB’s decision to let more PUVs go on their traditional routes will likewise help provide a source of income to drivers. —Andy Hoo, INQUIRER.net intern

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