PUVs yet to consolidate get ‘warning’ up to May 15

A streamer at a terminal for jeepneys plying the Paco-Rotunda Nagtahan route in Manila expresses the unyielding position of the local transport association about the government’s modernization program for public utility vehicles. RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — Operators and drivers of unconsolidated public utility vehicles (PUVs) will merely be issued “warnings” during the period of May 1 to May 15, even after the April 30 final deadline on their consolidation with transport cooperatives, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said.

LTFRB Chair Teofilo Guadiz III cited the need to give these PUV operators and drivers “due process,” in accordance with the Public Service Act (Commonwealth Act No. 146), the law on the regulation of all public utilities including public transportation..

“We cannot revoke their franchises until we have heard their explanation. But we can easily resolve these cases. After [May 15, if] these colorum (illegal) vehicles still continue to ply on the road, we will impound them in Tarlac and Pampanga,” Guadiz said in an online press conference on Tuesday.

READ: LTFRB sees 60 percent consolidated jeepneys in Metro Manila

These operators and drivers will also be fined and they could face imprisonment of up to six years, he said.

The fine for jeepneys is P50,000, and for vans, P200,000.

But the LTFRB has already issued show-cause orders to unconsolidated PUVs as early as Monday.

There were random inspections on major roads, particularly in Metro Manila, to check if PUV drivers had documents showing their membership in a cooperative. The LTFRB also issued stickers to mark consolidated PUVs.

“We cannot apprehend every single colorum PUV. But even if we are able to only flag down 10 colorum PUVs per day, that will make a big difference,” Guadiz said.

READ: No Supreme Court order vs PUV scheme deadline

Consolidation rate

According to the LTFRB, a total of 150,179 PUVs have been consolidated with 1,715 cooperatives and 1,088 corporations as of April 23.

Based on those figures, the consolidation rate is now 78.33 percent of the 191,730 PUVs nationwide, compared with the 76 percent recorded in January.

Guadiz said he was “very much confident” that the consolidation rate could reach 80 to 82 percent, citing the applications by PUV operators since Monday, especially in Metro Manila, Cebu City and Davao City.

The National Capital Region still had the lowest consolidation rate in the country at 57.7 percent as of Monday. But this was up from 54 percent in December.

Guadiz said Metro Manila’s PUV consolidation rate could reach 60 percent, which according to him is “more than enough” to service NCR’s estimated 13 million commuters, since “we have other modes of transportation… that could cover the jeepneys.”

Transportation officials have downplayed the three-day strike until Labor Day by transport and labor groups protesting the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).

On Monday, transport group Piston and commuter group Komyut filed a last-minute petition urging the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order on the consolidation deadline, in line with their petition on Dec. 20 last year against the PUVMP.

But no such order from the high court was forthcoming by Tuesday.

‘Management skills’

In Cagayan de Oro City, jeepney operators and drivers expressed doubt that the PUVMP could work.

“We are not against the modernization of the transport sector,” said Joel Gabatan, chair of Cagayan de Oro-based transport group United Drivers Association. “[But] we are against the consolidation of transport operators, who had to surrender their franchises to the cooperative.”

Gabatan, a former leader of Piston, said he doubts that the cooperatives can manage and sustain the modernization plan.

“The feedback we are getting is that cooperative leaders do not have management skills and some cooperatives are losing money while the mini-buses they operate are failing,” he said.

He cited a cooperative operating along the Canitoan route in the city which was supposed to field 49 vehicles under an approved local transport plan, but instead has deployed less than half that number.

“We need to see if there are successful stories in the modernization program because the biggest threat to failure is the cooperative itself,” said Gabatan, who also suggested that the government audit the cooperatives before allowing them to operate.

‘Necessary knowledge’

Abosamen Matuan, LTFRB Director in Northern Mindanao, himself raised some issues regarding cooperatives despite the agency’s policy requiring transport operators to form such groups.

During a forum on Mindanao’s public transportation on April 26, he said cooperatives should not deny applicants membership, as he noted that there were still almost 100 unconsolidated transport operators in Cagayan de Oro City.

“We are asking the cooperatives to accept applications and not to charge applicants exuberant (sic) fees,” Matuan said, affirming an earlier assertion by Gabatan that some cooperatives charged P20,000 to as high as P50,000 when membership fees used to be less than P1,000.

“We acknowledge that one of the problems we faced is the lack of knowledge about establishing and running a cooperative. That is why some operators are apprehensive about joining cooperatives,” the LTFRB official said.

But for all that, he said concerns regarding transport cooperatives were expected, since they are a relatively new concept in the country.

“There are adjustments that need to be done,” Matuan said. “The biggest challenge after the April 30 deadline is how to equip these transport cooperatives with the technical know-how and the necessary knowledge on how to run a cooperative.”

In that forum, transport cooperatives from the regions of Zamboanga, Northern Mindanao, Davao and Caraga expressed their opposition to another extension of the consolidation deadline.

Cheng Ordonez, chair of the Mindanao Federation of Transport Cooperatives (MFTC), said his group would ensure “service quality and safety across different transport cooperatives all over Mindanao.”

MFTC represents 46 transport cooperatives with almost 2,000 members. —WITH A REPORT FROM BOBBY LAGSA