CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – One way to cope with the government’s public utility vehicle (PUV) modernization program is for drivers to become members of transport cooperatives.
This was the advice of Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board-Region 10 (LTFRB-10) Director Aminoden Guro for PUV drivers, many of whom expressed fears of economic displacement amid the government’s heightened effort to modernize the country’s transport sector.
Once the government implements the PUV modernization program starting in 2021, Guro said transport cooperatives can avail of loan facilities to enable their members to buy e-jeepneys and solar jeepneys.
Guro said that based on LTFRB-10 records, half of the transport operators and drivers in Cagayan de Oro alone would be displaced.
That constitutes around 2,500 drivers out of the 5,000 jeepneys plying the city.
Guro said individual PUJ operators still have three years to join cooperatives in their respective routes to avail of government financing.
Guro said that both LandBank and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) had already finalized their financing guidelines for transport cooperatives seeking to avail of goverment loans.
The Department of Transportation’s own Office of Transport Cooperatives would be assisting transport cooperatives nationwide for this purpose, the LTFRB official said. Local drivers and operators may coordinate with the regional LTFRB office.
On Wednesday (Jan. 24), transport group Starex, or Solidarity Transport Association of Region X (Starex), held a picket in front of the LTFRB regional office to call on the government to rescind its planned PUV modernization nationwide. (Mark D. Francisco/PNA)
