- CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Sangguniang Panlungsod of Bacolod Wednesday told members of the Negros Bacolod Transport Coalition (NBTC) that their sentiments will be heard during a meeting to be led by Mayor Alfredo Benitez any day now.
The coalition, composed of 20 local associations of small operators and drivers operating in Bacolod, attended the SP session Nov. 16, and aired their views about the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program.
NBTC legal consultant Pete Pico said they are “not against modernization per se,” but stressed that the requirement of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to consolidate under a cooperative or corporate scheme before the renewal of franchises “is coercive and unacceptable.”
“This will result in the involuntary transferring of ownership and control of our unit/s to a privilege few and powerful rich,” Pico, former Diwa partylist representative, stressed in his presentation.
He noted that not more than 175 modern jeepneys are actually plying the streets of Bacolod, out of the 1,086 units already awarded by the LTFRB of the total 1,099 modernized PUJs authorized to ply the 24 routes in Bacolod, based on its Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP).
“This is because a modern unit cost ranges from P2.4 million to P2.6 million…and is too much and beyond the capability of small operators to pay, and ultimately, will only result in the abandonment and bankruptcy of their small transport business,” Pico said.
The rehabilitation of the traditional PUVs would be the most economic and feasible way of preventing the displacement, he said and urged the government to consider this alternative scheme.
The NBTC also called for a restudy of the transport route plan under City Ordinance 966, which adopted the LPTRP and passed by the SP on Oct. 13, 2021.
“This is to contain the chaos now brewing among the drivers and operators of modernized and traditional PUVs,” the coalition said in a statement.
The drivers and operators of traditional jeeps with expired franchises have until Nov. 23 to start complying with the PUVMP, or their units will be impounded.
The two-week reprieve started Nov. 9 after Benitez, who was then under quarantine after testing COVID positive following a trip to Japan, requested the LTFRB and the Land Transportation Office to allow these PUJs to continue plying the streets of Bacolod so that commuters will not be left stranded.
The crackdown on PUVs with expired franchises in Bacolod on Nov. 7 and 8 left many passengers stranded after the drivers/operators stopped operations for fear that they will be arrested or fined.
Councilor Al Victor Espino, chairperson of the SP Committee on Transportation and Traffic, said that before the COVID pandemic, there were 3,800 PUVs operating in Bacolod, and the LTFRB issued franchises to about 2,400.
But most of these franchises already expired and were not renewed under the PUVMP guidelines, which seeks to replace old PUVs, especially those 15 years old and above, with air-conditioned units powered by more environment-friendly fuels.
More than 2,000 drivers and operators of traditional PUJs would be affected once the modernization program will be fully implemented next year.
The city earlier said traditional jeepney drivers may either apply for consolidation to be given provisional authority as interim operators until March 31 next year, or fully shift to modern units by applying for the available routes as a cooperative./CGC
