By Warren Elijah Valdez
DAVAO CITY - The city government here is looking for ways to help public utility jeepney (PUJ) drivers here as their livelihood will be seriously affected even after the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is lifted.
This was pointed out by Mayor Sara Duterte in an interview Monday as she noted that social distancing measures that could still be implemented in the post-ECQ era will mean less number of passengers for the PUJ drivers.
The national government and health officials have been stressing the strict implementation on having designated social distancing measures among establishments, workplaces, and public transportation modes in preparation for lifting of the community quarantine measures.
Duterte bared that the City Transport and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) has already come up with a social distancing model that would be applied for all PUJs in Davao City.
“If they fail to follow the design, they will not be allowed to travel, and take in passengers,” she said
She also said that with the social distancing model imposed by the CTTMO, there will be a fewer number of passengers a PUJ could take. And this would also mean that the drivers’ income will also be affected.
“Which is why we are thinking of ways and other interventions for the jeepney drivers on how we could help them because of their (possible) loss of income due to the social distancing requirement told to us by the (medical) doctors to implement on our jeepneys,” Mayor Duterte said.
“Because we have more than 12,000 jeepney drivers in the city, and the budget that we have gotten from the DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment is almost depleting, and there were only about 2,000 PUJ drivers enrolled under the program,” she added.
Previously, the city government took the initiative to enroll the PUJ drivers under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program of the DOLE as their source of income had affected due to the community quarantine measures implemented.
Duterte said with the TUPAD enrollment, the PUJ drivers served as “implementers of the city government of Davao” in promoting social distancing and proper wearing of mask to the public. The PUJ drivers were also tasked to conduct sanitation activities in their respective PUJs as well as in their communities.
“o we are thinking on how to help the drivers,” Duterte said.