PUV scheme adjusted anew so more can join
The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has issued an order reopening the application for consolidation and the issuance of provisional authorities (PAs) under the Public Transport Modernization Program (PTMP).
Department Order (DO) No. 2025-009, dated May 6 and released to the media on Wednesday, said it was necessary to reopen the application “to ensure a more equitable and just transition’’ for public utility vehicle (PUV )operators yet to sign up for the scheme.
The order, signed by Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon, covers public utility jeepneys (PUJs) and urban vehicle express (UVE) units registered for the year 2023 or 2024 but had yet to consolidate into transport cooperatives or corporations.
PUJ and UVE operators with pending motions to accept, apply for or amend their consolidation papers and with units registered for 2023 and 2024 are also covered.
Under the order, these PUJ and UVE operators may be allowed to consolidate in routes with less than 60-percent consolidation, provided that they were previously granted permits to operate on those routes.
Different options
In case transport cooperatives or corporations are unable to admit new members, the covered PUJ and UVE operators will be allowed to operate in existing rationalized routes without the need to consolidate but subject to a future “transfer plan” wherein the government will propose new routes for them.
PUJs and UVEs will also be allowed to operate in new and “developmental” routes not covered by existing transport service entities. Their PAs will be valid for one year, subject to extension or renewal under guidelines to be issued by the DOTr.
The reopening of the consolidation process will take place while the special committee that Dizon created last March is conducting a full review of the PTMP to address implementation challenges.
Under the consolidation phase, PUV drivers must organize themselves into cooperatives and corporations in order to receive government assistance in modernizing their fleets and adjusting their routes.
Opposition
The transport group Manibela criticized the new DOTr directive, saying what it had asked Dizon in a dialogue was to give their members’ franchises back or issue PAs so they could continue operating while the special committee conducts its review of the PTMP.
“They (DOTr) still ended up with consolidation. Our request is [to make it] optional. Those who want to consolidate should be allowed, but those who do not want to consolidate but want to modernize [their units] should be also allowed,” the group said in a statement.
Manibela said single proprietorship as a method to modernize under the PTMP, which the government has not considered, should be tried “because it might be the way for the program to be successful.”
The group said many transportation cooperatives and corporations had also suffered losses and were eventually scrapped.
Consolidation will only lead PUV operators and drivers to “endless debt” as they try to upgrade their fleets and force many of them to quit altogether, it warned.
