Drivers belonging to transport group Manibela with Paco-Rotonda Nagtahan route stage a protest on their terminal in Manila during the nationwide transport strike to protest the December 31 deadline for public utility vehicle (PUV) operators to surrender their individual franchises and consolidate into cooperatives. INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
Another transport group will ask the Supreme Court to void government orders requiring operators of public utility vehicles (PUVs) to consolidate themselves into cooperatives by Dec. 31 under the government’s PUV modernization program.
Malayang Alyansa ng Bus Employees at Laborers (Manibela) will file its own petition before the high court next week, similar to the action taken on Dec. 20 by Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston).
In an interview on Thursday, Manibela president Mar Valbuena said his group’s legal team was just fine-tuning the petition to make sure it would jibe with that of Piston’s.
“We want our arguments to be aligned so there would be no conflicts (so that) the court could issue an order promptly. Hopefully after the Christmas break, we will be able to file our petition,” Valbuena said.
‘We need to unite’
“We need to unite so our call and our fight [against franchise consolidation] will be louder and stronger. We are hoping that we will get justice and keep our jobs (after the Dec. 31 deadline),” he said
Piston and Manibela spearheaded a two-week transport strike held from Dec. 18 to Dec. 29 in protest of the consolidation requirement under the modernization program.
Transport regulators earlier warned that starting Jan. 1, 2024, all PUVs that had failed to join a cooperative or corporation shall have their provisional authorities revoked and will be considered illegal, or “colorum,” should they keep plying the streets.
On Wednesday, Piston went to the Supreme Court to seek a temporary restraining order on the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB).
They argued that the DOTr and LTFRB, in issuing orders in connection with the consolidation requirement, committed grave abuse of discretion and violated the PUV operators’ right to freedom of association as well as “voluntary nature” of cooperatives under the Cooperative Code.
Call to Marcos
Piston president Mody Floranda said “We are calling on the President to face the transportation sector. We are not enemies of the state, we are its partners. He needs to intervene and junk the policies being implemented that are infringing (on) the rights of PUV drivers and operators.”
Mr. Marcos earlier insisted that the consolidation deadline would no longer be extended, noting that about 70 percent of PUVs in the country had already consolidated in accordance with the program, which was initiated in June 2017.
READ: LTFRB-Piston talks fail to solve impasse