By Vanne Elaine Terrazola
Senator Grace Poe on Friday suggested to the government to consider renting public utility vehicles (PUVs) should it decide to gradually open mass transportation after April 30.
Senator Grace Poe
(FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
The chair of the Senate Committee on Public Services issued the recommendation as businessmen, echoed by Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion, bat for a "selective quarantine" where some business operations such as manufacturing, agriculture and construction, and public transport would partially resume.
Poe said hiring the public transport services would ensure that people would continue to observe physical distancing measures, while allowing them to go to work.
"One of the other recommendations to that report is for the government to rent PUVs, buses or jeeps so that they can control the number of passengers per vehicle," she said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
"And that would cost around P4 billion from the national treasury," the senator added.
Poe noted that not all businesses, especially micro, small and medium enterprises, could provide means of transportation for their employees as they are also affected by the lockdown rules.
"As the is doing for all frontliners, maybe now the government could also consider mass transportation as another way of making sure that social distancing is maintained," she said.
Poe said she favors a modified community quarantine after the ECQ in Luzon ends on April 30.