{"id":124976,"date":"2017-10-19T05:02:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T09:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=124976"},"modified":"2017-10-19T05:02:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T09:02:01","slug":"dutertes-jeepney-modernization-deadline-only-an-expression-of-urgency-ltfrb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/19\/dutertes-jeepney-modernization-deadline-only-an-expression-of-urgency-ltfrb\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte\u2019s jeepney modernization deadline only \u2018an expression of urgency\u2019\u2014LTFRB"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Land<\/a>
Land of Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chairman Martin Delgra said on Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s deadline for drivers and operators to modernize their old jeepney units by January 1 was only his \u201cexpression of urgency.\u201d (Photo<\/a>: LTFRB Citizen Enforcer\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Land of Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chairman Martin Delgra said on Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s deadline for drivers and operators to modernize their old jeepney units by January 1 was only his \u201cexpression of urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the LTFRB and Department of Transportation\u2019s (DOTr) briefing at the House of Representatives, Delgra stressed that the President was not precisely giving a definite date on when drivers and operators should phase out their old units.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to put this in context insofar as the way I understand the President, he has spoken firmly, or if I may say strongly, in favor of the\u00a0modernization program. That\u2019s how I understand it, the expression of a date is an expression of urgency insofar as having to push this as firmly as we can,\u201d Delgra said.<\/p>\n

Present in the hearing were transportation officials and transport groups, including Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston), who recently staged a two-day transport strike to protest the public utility vehicle (PUV) modernization program.<\/p>\n

In his recent speech, Duterte told drivers and operators to comply with the January 1 deadline and threatened them with arrest if they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cSumunod kayo kasi January 1 [2018], kapag may makita ako diyang mga jeep ninyo na hindi narehistro, luma, guguyurin ko ‘yan sa harap niyo <\/em>[Comply because by January 1 (2018), if I see old, unregistered jeepneys, I will have it towed in front of you],\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMahirap kayo? P****i** magtiis kayo sa hirap at gutom, wala akong pakialam.<\/em> It\u2019s the majority of Filipinos. Huwag ninyong ipasubo ang tao<\/em> [Are you poor? Son of b*** suffer from poverty and hunger, I don\u2019t care. It\u2019s the majority of Filipinos. Don\u2019t ever harm the people],\u201d Duterte added.<\/p>\n

Piston conducted two-day nationwide strike on Monday and Tuesday in protest of the modernization program which will replace jeepney units of 15 years and above with \u201ceco-friendly\u201d jeepneys.<\/p>\n

When asked by the DOTr about their motives in conducting the strike, Piston president George San Mateo said they are fighting for drivers\u2019 and operators\u2019 livelihood as the new version of modernization scheme would lead to loss of jobs.<\/p>\n

Caloocan Representative Edgar Erice, for his part, questioned the LTFRB\u2019s timeline for the scheme after the Chief Executive issued a set of terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President said there will be no more jeepneys so that will be your deadline, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s the policy that by January, no more jeepneys. It\u2019s the President himself who said that on national televsion,\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Erice added that this kind of pronouncement, without the agency giving a time frame, would cause alarm among jeepney drivers.<\/p>\n

In a hearing of the House Committee on Transportation, Transportation Assistant Secretary Mark De Leon said that the government is still conducting route rationalization studies as part of modernization scheme.<\/p>\n

De Leon said that these studies need to be done before the actual modernization and replacement of old public utility vehicles.<\/p>\n

“What we have now is we have oversupply in some portions, an oversupply of units,” he said.<\/p>\n

According to De Leon, studies are already in progress in Metro Manila in collaboration with experts from University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman. Studies in Cebu and in Davao are also underway, in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency and Asian Development, respectively.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Delgra said that he and other transportation officials were reminded by the President on Wednesday night to push through with the modernization program.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement earlier that the administration remains committed to the PUV modernization program which is \u201clong overdue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government, through the LTFRB, will continue with the discussions, consultations, and further collaboration with members of the public transport sector, particularly in explaining the financial scheme available to PUJ operators and drivers who wish to avail of new units through financing of government financial institutions,\u201d Abella ended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Land of Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) chairman Martin Delgra said on Thursday that President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s deadline for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":124973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[28504,27911,2444],"class_list":["post-124976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-martin-delgra","tag-public-utility-vehicle-modernization-program","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-joanna-belle-deala","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}