PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is set to meet with jeepney operators and drivers who went on strike last Monday to protest the government’s plan to modernize the country’s jeepney fleet, reduce carbon emissions and improve Metro Manila traffic, the Palace said Wednesday.
“The President assured the workers group that he will be holding a separate meeting with the jeepney strikers, who held a national strike on the controversial plan to phase out old jeepneys,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella told reporters.
Abella said the meeting is part of the President’s “assurance that he would also listen to them because their own concerns were different” from the concerns of labor groups who met with him on Monday.
The meeting was set after transport group Piston led about 600,000 drivers and 200,000 operators in a nationwide transport strike against the modernization plan.
But the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board said transport group leaders were misleading their members because there is no plan to phase out jeepneys but only to modernize the fleet.
The LTFRB said the government is also preparing plans to provide financial assistance through the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines to jeepney operators and drivers as the agency pursues the implementation of the jeepney modernization program.
LTFRB Board Member Aileen Lizada backed the proposal of transport groups to use the Pantawid Pasada, or fuel subsidy cards for public-transport operators and drivers, be utilized as a seed fund to facilitate access to loans from banks and other financial institutions.
Furthermore, she suggested that a financial-literacy program be established in order that PUJ operators and drivers are able to manage and further increase their income.
She said the LTFRB is coordinating with the Department of Transportation and the Department of Finance for the implementation of the financial mechanism for the jeepney modernization program.
The DoF, on the other hand, has said it will allocate P8 billion for the Pantawid Pasada to offset the impact of rising fuel prices due to the planned excise tax on petroleum products and the jeepney modernization program in line with the tax reform initiatives of the government.
Under the Pantawid Pasada program, the government plans to extend cash cards to public transportation drivers which they can use whenever they buy fuel.