#MINDANAO The announcement of the launch of the High Priority Bus System (HPBS) in Davao City came as no surprise to many. The program calls for the deployment of 1,000 airconditioned city buses along various routes in the city covering a distance of around 400 kilometers. Using an automated fare collection system, these buses will be dispatched according to rider demand. The system has been running on a limited capacity for several months to the delight of many commuters who once braved the crowds that jostled for limited space on jeepneys. Unsurprisingly, there has been little public clamor against it, save for some symbolic protests by transport groups in the third quarter of 2019. To make this transition to the bus system a good one, the Davao City government under Mayor Sara Duterte has engaged a plan for affected jeepney drivers and operators, from livelihood skills upgrades in trades like electricians, which the city lacks, to scholarships for their children. Some P300 million has been allocated by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)  to serve the college education needs of an estimated 7,000 jeepney drivers and operators’ families. This is on top of P100 million allocated by the city government and P95 million from the DTI. At the same time, jeepney drivers can be absorbed into the new system, which will require thousands of employees as well. It looks like the Davao experience in transport reform shows that orderly transitions can be done. That said, these more modern, cleaner, and safer modes of public transport are what growing cities need in order to reduce vehicular traffic on city streets, and assure the safe travel of residents. Low-cost public transport makes a city, and living in a city competititve. We often hear people claim that in case the public transport modes are safe and comfortable, they would not mind not using private cars anymore. With these modern PUV systems in place, can we expect them to do so? Can our shipping rates be reviewed? In a press conference last Wednesday, Southern Mindanao Business Council and European. Chamber of Commerce Davao head Tony Peralta raised the issue of shipping fees for products bound for markets outside Mindanao. He and other business leaders would like to see more competitive shipping fees which will help lower transport costs and allow more of Mindanao’s products to be shipped out to those that need them. This hikes demand and provides more steady income for our farms, compared with relying on nearby markets alone, which can be flooded with supply and cause commodity prices to fluctuate wildly, a situation that hurts our farmers and producers, and deters them from producing more. As we wrote previously, establishing logistics facilities such as cold storage areas along Mindanao's highways will allow farmers and producers to properly stock excess inventory to be shipped to other markets in the Philippines. With the eruption of the Taal volcano, the Mindanao earthquakes and other calamities worldwide that seem to take place with greater frequency, ensuring low shipping costs and efficient logistics will help the country cope better with such events, since food and other provisions are more readily available from unaffected areas to feed those recovering from these events. Higher levels of cooperation will be needed.