Transport group claims low PUV franchise consolidation rate in Metro Manila

(Philippine Daily Inquirer file photo/ Richard A. Reyes)

MANILA, Philippines — Transport group Piston on Monday said that the franchise consolidation rate among jeepney operators in Metro Manila has remained low one day after the consolidation deadline last December 31, 2023.

Piston president Mody Floranda explained that while attached agencies of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) reported an increase in the number of franchise holders who opted to consolidate, more than half of PUV operators in Metro Manila are still unconsolidated.

“Batay dito sa nakuha nating datos, nasa 73.5 percent pa ang hindi pumapasok sa consolidation dito sa National Capital Region (NCR),” Floranda told Inquirer.net in a phone interview.

(Based on the data we gathered, around 73.5 percent are still unconsolidated in the National Capital Region.)

“This means that the majority of PUVs plying the streets in the region are still traditional jeepneys,” he added in Filipino.

According to the Office of Transportation Cooperatives Chair Andy Ortega, the number of consolidated franchises in the Metro have reached 36 percent on the evening of the franchise consolidation deadline.

Floranda also pointed out that the directive from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board [LTFRB] which allowed unconsolidated jeepneys to ferry commuters in some routes in Metro Manila, has only delayed the inevitable “transport disaster” brought by the reduced number of PUVs due to the PUV modernization program.

The LTFRB previously released a memorandum allowing unconsolidated PUV units to continue ferrying commuters in chosen routes in Metro Manila until the end of January.

Floranda criticized this “detour” from the LTFRB, saying that this is an admission of failure from the agency’s part and that the LTFRB itself knows that the modernization program will be harsh on commuters.

 “This is a big problem if continuously implemented by the LTFRB and the administration of Bongbong Marcos. That’s where we’ll experience what we call a severe transportation crisis. Millions of Filipinos who rely on jeepneys won’t have any means of transportation,” he said in Filipino.

Piston estimates that 6.2 million commuters in the country would bear the brunt of the modernization program’s full implementation in Metro Manila alone.

This, however, was denied by the LTFRB, which said that other modes of transportation and other consolidated PUVs would be able to cover the major thoroughfares in Manila.   i