By Chito Chavez
Members of a transport group blamed the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for allowing the registration of dilapidated and poorly conditioned public utility vehicles (PUV) that continue to dot the city streets.
Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) national president George San Mateo (PISTON Facebook page / MANILA BULLETIN file photo)
Pinagkaisahang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) national president George San Mateo questioned the government’s “Tanggal Bulok, Tanggal Usok’’ program, saying it is absurd to run after PUVs which they themselves allowed to ply their routes.
He insisted that the LTFRB stands liable for allowing the registration of the passenger jeepneys that were confiscated by the Inter-Agency Council on Traffic (I-ACT) for not being "roadworthy."
San Mateo complained that the accountability should not rest on the shoulders of the operators but on the corrupt LTFRB personnel who allowed said vehicles to be registered despite being not roadworthy as they claimed.
LTFRB chairman Martin Delgra clarified that jeepneys will not be impounded if the units are roadworthy adding that the government is already extending assistance to operators under the jeepney modernization program.
San Mateo explained that PISTON is amenable to a modernization program that is democratic and socially just.
Delgra said that the junking of current guidelines would only delay the modernization process by years.
San Mateo insisted that the “Tanggal Bulok, Tanggal Usok’’ program is simply a prelude to the eventual phase-out of the jeepneys.