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NewsTranscript
00:00 We will also hear the protest caravan of some transport group VUCAS against the PUV modernization program.
00:06 We will talk to the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board Chairman Atty. Tshofilo Guadis III.
00:12 Chairman Guadis, good morning. Welcome to the first news.
00:16 Good morning to you and to all who are listening to our program.
00:22 As what Mar Valbuena of Manibela said earlier, one of their requests is to extend the validity of the franchise of traditional jeeps instead of consolidating based on the process of the LPFRB.
00:35 What is the position of the government on this?
00:37 Sir, we remain firm with our stand that the consolidation is already done and we will proceed with the other phases of modernization.
00:48 This is a 10-phase program that will start with consolidation. The second phase will be operationalization.
00:57 Then we have the fleet modernization program, lectures.
01:04 They have been saying for a long time that it will be a phase-out.
01:08 What we are asking is that they should create a session so we can fix the system of public transportation in the Philippines.
01:21 So to the viewers, whatever protest they will do at this point, we will continue the modernization program based on the plan.
01:31 Yes. The government has a blueprint for the modernization program. It started in 2017. It has been six, seven postponements.
01:44 It's hard to postpone it again. Until when will this continue?
01:48 Because their first request to me was in June of 2023. I gave them six months. After six months, what will happen if we give them two months or three months?
02:08 What assurance do you have that they will not ask for an extension? Because every time we give an extension, when the extension ends, they ask for an extension again.
02:19 Is there no end to this? How will our program be fixed if every time the extension ends, they will ask for three to six months?
02:30 The government is not open to negotiations. They are saying that they can modernize without spending that much on new units.
02:41 The government is not open to that option.
02:45 That's open. That's the modernization where they will not spend a lot. There are 54 models of jeepneys that are presented by different manufacturers,
03:01 ranging from the price of a locally produced one of 980,000 to as much as 2.4 million. They can afford to buy new vehicles.
03:17 But this aspect, sir, it would take about two to three more years before that happens.
03:24 There are phases of modernization like educating them, rationalizing their routes. So it would take a lot of time before we reach that point.
03:35 What we are asking from this time is to fix your route, to open associations so that you won't be the first to go on your trip.
03:46 Okay. It's been a few weeks since the extension of January 31. What are our numbers on consolidation? Has it increased?
03:54 It has increased. Based on our figures, our baseline is 40,000 when we started. But as time went by, we noticed that of that,
04:10 there's only about 23,000 operational jeepneys. Where is the 21,000? We have a lot of franchisees who are not running on their 2022.
04:24 Under our law, if you're not running for two years, even if you join this program, you will be removed from the franchise.
04:36 So the baseline that we are talking about is 23,000 active jeepneys in Metro Manila. Of that 23,000, we are proud to say that about 97 percent
04:49 of them joined consolidated entities like a corporation and a cooperative.
04:57 We have data that we will send to you if you can provide it. We can discuss it in our next interview. We can say that 90 percent of Metro Manila is consolidated.
05:14 Okay. Lastly, there might be passengers affected by the caravan protest tomorrow. What is the home plan of LPFRB here?
05:22 First of all, as we said, there are passengers affected. There is no truth to that. Number one, we have marked the areas where there are no consolidated jeepneys.
05:37 We have jeepneys waiting there. We will take the place of operators who did not join the modernization. So in those areas, there are jeepneys.
05:52 In areas, if possible, if there are strikers who did not join, but still pass through, there are rescue buses, MMDA, LPFRB and LTO. We have a joint plan.
06:10 We have a standard operating procedure if there are such strikes. What we are afraid of is the loss of passengers, the possible chaos that will happen on the road,
06:25 to those who are throwing spikes and jeepneys that are passing through.
06:33 Chairman Guadiz, thank you for the update. Good morning to you.
06:38 Good morning to you too.
06:40 We talked to Chairman Atty. Tiofilo Guadiz III of LPFRB.
06:45 (Continued in Tagalog)
06:57 (Continued in Tagalog)