Pro-PUVMP groups will strike if the program is suspended

By: Dexter Cabalza – 3 minutes ago

Inquirer archive photo

MANILA, Philippines — Transportation associations have threatened to go on strike if the Senate goes ahead with its plan to introduce a resolution calling on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to suspend the implementation of the controversial Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).

The transportation groups led by the Magnificent Seven, who have supported the program from the beginning, called on Senate President Francis Escudero to “conduct a fair investigation and listen to the plight of the majority.”

“This may sound surprising. (But when push comes to shove) we may have to resort to a difficult measure – and that is a transport strike. This is the ultimate step for us in the transport sector to express our strongest opposition to the Senate’s plans,” Pasang Masda President Obet Martin said at a press conference in Quezon City on Monday.

READ: Suspension of PUV modernization program demanded

“We will expose them to the power of the 80 percent of the transport sector that supported and relied on this government program,” he added.

During the July 23 hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Services, Escudero, who called the PUVMP problematic, urged committee chairman Senator Raffy Tulfo to file a resolution urging the President to temporarily suspend the program until “all questions and issues” are resolved.

Threat to re-voters

Martin said they would not vote for senators who sign the resolution.

According to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, by May, 81 percent of the country’s more than 190,000 PUVs had already merged or joined cooperatives or companies – the first requirement of the program.

Martin, who said they were not invited to the Senate hearing, explained that transportation groups in favor of PUVMP have already invested heavily in the program. The temporary suspension, he added, would hurt their revenues as unconsolidated PUVs that had been banned from their routes due to “colorum” or illegality would be allowed back on the road.

“Many of us have already complied with the PUVMP. Many of us have already borrowed money and are paying off that debt to buy these modernized units,” he said.

The “Magnificent 7” include in particular Pasang Masda, Alliance of Transport Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines, Alliance of Concerned Transport Organizations, Federation of Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association of the Philippines, Stop and Go Transport Coalition, Liga ng Transportasyon at Operators sa Pilipinas and National Federation of UV Express Inc.