Pro-PUVMP transport groups to go on strike if program is suspended

Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines — Transport groups have threatened to go on strike should the Senate proceed with its plan to file a resolution urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to suspend the implementation of the controversial public utility vehicle modernization program (PUVMP).

The transport groups led by the “Magnificent 7,” which have supported the program from the start, called on Senate President Francis Escudero to conduct “a fair investigation and listen to the plight of the majority.”

“This may come off as a surprise. [But should push come to shove], we may need to do a difficult action—and that is a transport strike. This is the ultimate move for us in the transport sector to convey our strongest opposition on what the Senate is planning to do,” Pasang Masda president Obet Martin said at a press conference in Quezon City on Monday.

READ: Suspension of PUV modernization program urged

“We will let them face the force of the 80 percent of the transport sector who supported and gambled on this program of the government,” he added.

During the hearing of the Senate committee on public services on July 23, Escudero, who described the PUVMP as problematic, urged the panel chair, Sen. Raffy Tulfo, to file a resolution urging the President to temporarily suspend the program until “all questions and problems” were addressed.

Threat to reelectionists

Martin said they would not vote for senators who sign the resolution.

According to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, as of May, 81 percent of the over 190,000 PUVs in the country have already consolidated or joined cooperatives or corporations—the program’s first requirement.

Martin, who said they were not invited to the Senate hearing, explained that pro-PUVMP transport groups have already invested a lot under the program. Its temporary suspension, he added, would affect their income as unconsolidated PUVs, which had been barred from plying their routes for being “colorum” or illegal, would be allowed to return to the streets.

“Many of us already complied [with the PUVMP]. Many of us already borrowed money and are paying off these debts to buy these modernized units,” he said.

The Magnificent 7 is composed of namely Pasang Masda, Alliance of Transport Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines, Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations, Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines, Stop and Go Transport Coalition, Liga ng Transportasyon at Operators sa Pilipinas, and National Federation of UV Express Inc.