Cayetano tells policy-makers: Don’t over-crowd PH roads with electric jeepneys

Senator Pia Cayetano. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—While environmentally safe, the use and deployment of electric jeepneys all over the Philippines must be based on a sound traffic management plan, Sen. Pia Cayetano said on Tuesday.

Cayetano, in a recent hearing on sustainable transportation, said bringing in electric jeepneys must not be based solely on the fact that it would pose hardly any threat to the environment.

“Of course, I want something environmentally friendly, but environmentally friendly alone does not necessarily tackle other issues like traffic management,” she said at last week’s hearing.

“We’re so proud that e-jeeps are environmentally friendly that we let cities get 20 or 100 of them. But those are still more rolling vehicles on the road that cannot afford to have a single extra vehicle,” Cayetano said.

She noted that not all of the electric jeepneys in the country were covered by franchises. Rolling out electric jeepneys must be part of a comprehensive plan that would take into consideration how big the vehicles should be and how many could be deployed, she said.

The lack of planning has been “very frustrating,” she added.

Cayetano said she had been a supporter of the electric jeepney, earlier calling on the government to grant franchises to e-jeep operators.

But she had assumed, she said, that the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC) had been doing a study to determine whether there was a need for additional vehicles on the road.

Cayetano also pointed out that most of the electric jeepneys in the country were imported, even if the Philippines has been operating for decades a jeepney building industry.

The jeepney is a Philippine innovation that has become a big part of the country’s cultural heritage, and it must not be overshadowed by imports, according to Cayetano.

“I don’t find it acceptable that one group is rolling out e-jeeps that are imported and we have a local jeepney industry. Sustainability means providing jobs. And thats’ also where one advocacy of mine comes in. That’s our heritage, that’s our culture, this jeepney culture,” she said.

Instead of replacing the local jeepneys with foreign-made ones, the government must step in to transform them into a more sustainable form of public transportation, she said.

Assistant Transportation Secretary Sherielysse Bonifacio said during last week’s hearing that the DoTC’s National Implementation Plan was focused focused not only on environmentally friendly forms of transportation, but also on sustainable ones.

Bonifacio said the goal would be to provide accessible, affordable, safe, resilient, and sustainable transport systems.

She said this was the goal of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and an Asean commitment to which the Philippines adhered.

As for electric jeepneys, the DoTC has no policy yet, but it entertains every application, according to Bonifacio.

The DoTC official pushed for an origin-destination study to determine if there were enough public vehicles. This study, she said, has not been done since 1996 and ideally, it should be done every five years.

The Metro Manila study, however, has been going through updating by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and the results would be out next November, she said.

Bonifacio said Transportation Secretary Joseph Abaya has been looking for a scientific way to award franchises for public vehicles.

At present, the issuance of franchises, which has been based on public demand in a particular transport corridor, “is very subjective,” she said.

RELATED STORIES

Obama sees big reveal: Jeepneys out, Comet in

RE-Charging Tacloban with green transport