Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Chairman Teofilo Guadiz III. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The number of public utility vehicles (PUVs) plying thoroughfares in Metro Manila needs to be trimmed down, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said on Monday.
LTFRB Chair Teofilo Guadiz III explained that based on the studies conducted by LTFRB, they are seeing an “excess” in the number of PUVs.
“Based on the studies of the LTFRB and DOTr [Department of Transportation], there is what you call an excess in the number of public utility vehicles. There is a need to trim them down, there is a need to recalibrate them in routes where there are less,” Guadiz said in an interview with CNN.
He explained that the agency monitored instances of “duplication” wherein some jeepney units serve routes that are also served by other jeepney units plying adjoining or longer routes.
“There are areas in Metro Manila where there is duplication. In these areas, even if you lose jeepneys operating routes from A to B, there are still those from A to C,” the LTFRB chief said in a mix of Filipino and English.
On fears of a shortage due to the decreased number of PUVs to ferry commuters starting February this year, Guadiz said that other modes of transportation, including buses, tricycles, and taxis, would be able to accommodate the number of commuters in the National Capital Region (NCR).
“If we compute all of these, we do not see a shortage in public utility vehicles,” he continued.
Data from the LTFRB shows that 395 jeepney routes and 108 UV Express routes in the NCR have no consolidated units.
But transport and progressive groups say otherwise. They argue that decreasing the number of PUVs in Metro Manila would burden millions of regional commuters in what they say would be a “transport disaster.”
The mandatory franchise consolidation is one of the first steps in implementing the government’s PUV Modernization Program.
READ: More impounding areas ready for ‘colorum’ PUVs
This means that individual PUV franchise holders would form corporations and cooperatives to merge their franchises into one entity.
In a previous statement, the DOTr said that starting February 1, non-consolidated PUVs would be tagged as “colorum” and would be apprehended.