Rep. France Castro warns of transport crisis

OPPOSING IMPROVEMENT | Members of the transport group Piston try to drum up support for a strike against the government’s jeepney fleet modernization program. (Photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro on Sunday called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to listen to the transportation sector’s concerns over the public utility vehicle (PUV) modernization program, echoing the warning of a looming “transport crisis” that would affect 28.5 million commuters nationwide if the Dec. 31 franchise merger deadline pushes through.

“With more than 68,000 PUVs still unconsolidated two weeks before its deadline, I think that the ‘transport crisis’ [the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide] warned about is indeed in the horizon and it would affect at least 28.5 million commuters,” Castro said in a statement.

The lawmaker urged Marcos to stop the PUV modernization program and heed the transport groups’ clamor to remove the year-end deadline.

She claimed that the real goal of the PUV modernization program was the phaseout of traditional passenger jeepneys and enabling big corporations and foreign firms to control the transportation sector.

“This will cripple our public transportation and our economy. This will also sink our micro, small, and medium enterprises like our small [transport] operators,” Castro said in Filipino.

The Department of Transportation’s PUV modernization program entails a consolidation of existing franchises, in which only one franchise held by a single cooperative or corporation would be allowed to operate in a specific route.