Tag Archives: transport modernization

komentaryo

STRIKE!

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) have been busy doing some spinning. They keep insisting – complete with infographics – that the jeepney phaseout is actually a modernization plan that will make these public transport vehicles safer for the public and kinder to the environment. After Monday’s transport strike, they’ve insisted that it wasn’t nationwide at all, belittling its effect on the commuting public, towards asserting that the strike was no problem at all.

Which behooves the question: if it was no problem at all, why is the LTFRB even threatening suspension of jeepney franchises that joined in the strike?

Sometimes the magnitude of the protest is measured by the kind of reaction it generates from government agencies and the powers-that-be. And in the case of the Monday strike vis a vis the damage control and spin that LTFRB and DOTr are doing, it’s pretty clear it was far larger than they will care to admit. (more…)

komentaryo

Who will benefit from the jeepney phase out?

The jeepney strike that kicked-off this week drove home the point that needed to be made about the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) proposed jeepney modernization program.

First, that in fact jeepneys are not the main cause of our traffic crisis, because despite the fact that there were barely any jeeps on the roads, traffic was still terrible.

Second, that in fact this proposed modernization program will not only disenfranchise jeepney drivers and operators, it will also ultimately affect the commuting public. On the day of the strike, commuters were stranded no matter the number of organizations that did not join the strike, and no matter the transport LGUs and government agencies provided.

Makes you wonder: if this shift to new jeeps happens, will there be no lull in operations? Does this mean that there is actually one huge business already making these jeeps, ready to receive its millions from government subsidies, bank loans, and jeepney operators who can afford the P7 million pesos required to get a new modern jeepney franchise?

Whose business is this, and how did it get such a great deal with the DOTr?

We’re talking 400,000 jeeps to be bought at the price of at least P1-million-pesos each.

Imagine earning that much out of one huge government deal. It boggles the mind. (more…)