The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is expecting at least 80 percent of passenger jeepneys nationwide to have complied after the April 30 deadline for their operators to consolidate into either a cooperative or a corporation.
LTFRB chairperson Teofilo Guadiz III said that based on their data as of April 23 this year, a total of 150,179 units of passenger jeepneys have already consolidated—which represents 78.33 percent of the total number of passenger jeepneys operating across the country.
But Guadiz has expressed confidence that it will further increase to around 80 to 82 percent, saying that a lot of passenger jeepney operators have flocked to a number of LTFRB offices, especially in urban areas, based on their monitoring as of Tuesday afternoon, April 30.
“I have already directed all LTFRB offices to accommodate all the applicants today. If it would require that their offices would be open until 8 p.m. or 10 p.m., so be it. The instruction is to accommodate all of them when they are already inside the LTFRB offices,” said Guadiz in a press briefing.
The original deadline was supposed to be on Dec. 31 last year but President Marcos extended it to April 30 to give more operators the chance to consolidate, especially in Metro Manila where the consolidation rate before was only around 40 percent.
So far in Metro Manila, the consolidation rate as of Apri 23 was already at 57 percent and Gudiz is confident that it will reach at least 60 percent judging by the presence of operators in LTFRB offices.
And the sudden influx of operators in LTFRB offices, according to Guadiz, are what he referred to as the remaining ‘doubting Thomases” who are either pinning their hope that the deadline would be extended again, or that the Supreme Court would issue a temporary restraining order.
And for Guadiz, the consolidation rate in Metro Manila that is enough and will not cause transportation crisis since there are other mode of transportation that covers the jeepney routes, like trains, buses, tricycles, taxis and even passenger vans.
What happens next?
Based on the LTFRB estimate, around 30,000 passenger jeepneys that will not be covered by the consolidation rate and will be classified as colorum after the April 30 deadline.
He, however, cited their own study stating that of the 30,000 jeepneys that will not be covered, around 20,000 of them were already abandoned based on the figure of registration at the Land Transportation Office and affirmation of the franchise at their office after the pandemic, or in 2021.
“So we are only talking around 10,000 passenger jeepneys which will not be covered by the consolidation,” said Guadiz.
After the April 30 deadline, Guadiz said they will be sending a Show Cause Order to all those who failed to consolidate as part of the due process before the revocation of the franchise.
It was only when the due process was observed that a passenger jeepney which failed to condolidate would be apprehended.
Of stickers and papers
One of the challenges on the crackdown on colorum passenger jeepneys was how to identify which of them did not consolidate or not.
This was already resolved according to Guadiz since they have decided to hand out stickers and other identifiable signs that the passenger jeepneys plying the routes have already consolidated.
Those which do not have that stickers and other identifiable marks, he said, will be apprehended.
There are corresponding fines for colorum jeepneys and the maximum penalty, according to Guadiz, is impounding the vehicles.