PITX exec backs 100% capacity for PUVs

MANILA, Philippines — An official of the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX) backed Thursday the proposal to increase the passenger capacity of public transportation vehicles (PUVs) to 100 percent. 

Jayson Salvador, corporate affairs and government relations head of PITX, said that the move will benefit both the passengers and PUV operators as the Christmas holiday season nears.

“Ayon naman sa pagtaya natin, karamihan naman ng bumabyahe at lumalabas sa ngayon ay mga fully vaccinated na so kung ito ay magiging batayan ay sang-ayon tayo na kahit papaano ay taasan nila yung capacity ng mga pampublikong sasakyan para hindi mahirapan yung ating mga kababayan,” Salvador said during the Laging Handa briefing.

(Based on our estimates, most of the commuters are already fully vaccinated, so if this will be the basis, we support the proposal to increase the capacity for PUVs for the benefit of our commuters.)

Currently, passenger capacity for PUVs is set t 50 percent.

“Dahil sa 50 percent capacity, medyo naiipon yung pasahero natin at sa isang banda nahihirapan na ring isustain ng mga public utility  operators yung kanilang operations dahil sa pagtataas ng krudo tapos kalahati lang ang maisasakay nila, medyo hirap ang operators nila,” Salvador said.

(Since current passenger capacity is only at 50 percent, crowding is a problem and our public utility operators are also having a hard time sustaining their operations since oil prices are increasing yet they can only accommodate half the capacity of PUVs.)

Salvador said 50,000 passengers a day flock to PITX  since Metro Manila was placed under Alert Level 3. This is expected to increase to 60,000 to 65,000 this “Undas” weekend.

Salvador said they are eyeing to increase the deployed units in the terminal to 2,000 to accommodate more passengers.

gsg