ILOILO City – The city and provincial governments of Iloilo will harmonize their respective local public transport route plans (LPTRP).
Both already agreed in principle that “first town jeepneys” – those from the municipalities of Leganes, Pavia and Oton – will be allowed to enter the city.
Iloilo Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO) head Mario Nillos said this well be reflected in the respective LPTRPs of the province and city.
This week, Nillos said, his team will sit down again the technical working group of the city government to align the routes of the “first towns” jeepneys.
“First town” jeepney routes should complement the city’s jeepney routes.
Nillos said the provincial government will make a presentation and justify the harmonized route plans before the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and highlight the peculiarities of the ground traffic realities.
Based on the DOTr guidelines, the route plan should be geographic and administrative in nature or should be within the local government’s geographic jurisdiction.
“Ining aton peculiar ini kay ang mga pasahero halin sa ‘first town’ masulod sa syudad. This is where Land Transportation Franchising and Regulator Board and DOTr should come in,” Nillos explained.
The PPDO head added that they will also discuss with the city government how many units of “first town” jeepneys will be allowed to enter the city, which will be based on the volume of the passengers coming from the first town areas.
Meanwhile, according to the city’s Public Safety and Transportation Management Office head Jeck Conlu, they are targeting to submit the modified or revised transport route plan by second week of September.
But prior this, this will be presented during the Transport Summit on Aug. 30.
Mayor Jerry P. Treñas earlier announced that the suspension of the LPTRP implementation will be extended for another 45 days to give way to the finalization of the revised route plan which still be approved by the DOTr./PN
