BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – Individual jeepney operators have one month left to decide: consolidate or lose their franchises.
But as the April 30 deadline approaches, 69 jeepney routes (about 21.1 percent) in Western Visayas are still without jeepneys consolidated as a cooperative or corporation plying.
Majority of these jeepney routes are in Negros Occidental, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) data showed.
Likewise, these unconsolidated routes are not yet covered by a Local Public Transport Route Plan (LPTRP).
What will happen to these 69 routes after the deadline?
Under LTFRB’s Memorandum Circular 2024-001 dated Jan. 31, 2024, consolidation of units for routes that are not yet covered by the route plan shall not be allowed if the number of unconsolidated units is below 40 percent of the total number of authorized units.
Essentially, units originally plying for these routes will be considered as “colorum” vehicles by May 1 unless other consolidated PUVs are pulled in to serve the routes.
Hence, the only remedy for the unconsolidated individual operators is to join the existing transport cooperative on such a route.
LTFRB Chairman Teofilo Guadiz earlier said the PUV modernization program achieved a 75 percent consolidation rate for jeepneys – 112,801 of the total 150,867 units in the country.
After the three-month extension given by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for the consolidation of jeepney units until April 30, Guadiz warned that a crackdown on colorum jeepneys would start on May 1.
“We are in the final stage of the program’s phase one, meaning to say, you are only given until April 30 to consolidate. Transport operators need to form a corporation or a cooperative to ply a certain route,” Guadiz was quoted as saying.
President Marcos caved into public clamor to extend the consolidation period for another three months until April 30, 2024.
The extension is supposed to accommodate individual operators to either join or form their transport cooperatives to achieve one of the components of the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) in Western Visayas reported about a 70 percent consolidation rate in the region.
The LTFRB then issued memorandum circular 2024-001 which outlines industry consolidation during the April 30 extension.
The circular states that the LTFRB is allowing unconsolidated individual operators to ply their regular routes until April 30, 2024.
Although they are allowed to ply their routes, the LTFRB said the registration of the traditional jeepneys must be updated and with valid passenger accident insurance.
This means that the confirmation of unconsolidated units of individual operators may also be allowed until April 30.
Likewise, the consolidation for routes covered by the route plan is allowed only on existing rationalized routes with no consolidated transport cooperative as of Dec. 31, 2023.
Too, consolidation of units for routes that are not yet covered by the route plan shall not be allowed if the number of unconsolidated units is below 40 percent of the total number of authorized units.
The only remedy for the unconsolidated individual operators is to join the existing transport cooperative on such a route.
The consolidated entities of such routes must comply with a common fleet management to ensure organized dispatch of units and avoid cut-throat competition between them.
In addition, the Board will now allow individual operators whose application for consolidation was limited to 15 units only to form or join the existing transport cooperatives for routes that are overlapping.
Individual operators may also withdraw their membership without from endorsement Office of Transport Cooperatives (OTC) provided their cooperative’s application for consolidation is still pending with
In 2022, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) approved Iloilo City’s route plan, which is supposedly one of the first highly urbanized cities in the country to implement its LPTRP on June 12, 2022.
But Mayor Jerry Treñas suspended it barely a month after its implementation and introduced some amendments.
The city government later revised its route plan and submitted the revised copy in November 2023. The City Council passed an ordinance approving the city’s enhanced route plan in May 2023.
Under its enhanced LPTRP, Iloilo City has 17 rationalized routes, eight new intra-city routes, one “enhanced” new route, and a total of 1,767 authorized modern units.
The government had extended the deadline for the consolidation of public utility vehicles (PUV) five times since 2022 supposedly to give more time to those drivers and operators who did not meet the deadline. This means that unconsolidated jeepneys and even UV Express nationwide may still be allowed to ply their usual routes until April 30.
The consolidation process is among the 10 components of the modernization program. Through consolidation, the LTFRB stressed that PUV units will be allocated equally to rationalized routes to prevent competition among drivers over the same route.
Launched in June 2017, the PUV Modernization Program is the flagship, non-infrastructure project of former President Rodrigo Duterte. It seeks to phase out PUVs aged 15 years or older.
The program promises a “comfortable, safe, reliable, convenient, affordable and environmentally sustainable” public transportation system in the country.
But several transport and cause-oriented groups decried the program as “anti-poor,” arguing that the new jeepney unit would cost them roughly P2.4 million per unit.
They also lamented that only multi-million peso companies can afford to buy the new “fleet management system” that sets a minimum of 15 units per franchise.
The transport leaders also claimed that some components of the program are disadvantageous to the transport cooperatives such as forcing the cooperative to avail of the modern units./PN
