THE PHILIPPINE government would need more than a billion dollars to help jeepney drivers move to cleaner vehicles under its transport modernization program, congressmen were told on Thursday.
“We are looking into a P64.2-billion ($1.16 billion) fund requirement,” Riza Marie Paches, a member of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), told a House of Representatives hearing.
This is assuming the so-called equity subsidy given to these drivers is increased to P360,000 per unit, she said.
The fund would cover 178,213 public utility jeepneys and utility vehicle express units nationwide, Ms. Paches said.
The Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) had provided P6.9 billion in loans covering 3,124 modern units as of January, Assistant Vice-President Generoso S. David said.
LTFRB Chairman Teofilo L. Guadiz III said a jeepney operator may apply for a franchise as a sole corporation if they do not wish to become part of a cooperative.
“A single individual, so long as he has the financial capacity, may form his own sole corporation,” he said.
More than 100,000 jeepney drivers and operators on Monday went on a strike to protest the government’s mandated phaseout of diesel-run jeepneys.
They aborted a plan for a week-long strike after the government of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. agreed to revise its modernization plan and the phaseout of traditional public utility vehicles.
The palace said Mr. Marcos had ordered the Department of Transportation (DoTr) and LTFRB to use the Dec. 31 extension for franchise consolidation to study the provisions of DoTr’s 2017 modernization order and ensure the concerns of drivers and operations are taken into account.
A modern jeepney, which is a minibus-like non-airconditioned vehicle, is expected to cost as much as P2.6 million.
The Transportation department’s proposed P788-million allocation in the 2023 budget for the modernization program was scrapped.
Ms. Paches said 63.5% or 113,090 public utility vehicles have applied for consolidation.
She said only 29% or 14,714 units have applied for franchise consolidation in the capital region, the lowest in the country. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz