Transport group Manibela will conduct a three-day strike starting Monday, March 24, in protest of what it described as a blatant lie committed by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) when it allegedly submitted wrong figures on the status of the modernization plan of the public transport to President Marcos.

Since last year, the LTFRB and other officials of the Department of Transportation (DOtr) have been claiming that the number of the public utility vehicle operators (PUVs) that consolidated into a corporation or cooperative was at 86 percent nationwide.

The consolidation is the first phase of the PUV Modernization plan wherein operators of passenger jeepneys and other PUVs were obliged to either form a cooperative or corporation, or join one, in order to facilitate the approval and distribution of the franchise.

The consolidation deadline was moved at least six times, the latest was the intervention of President Marcos which declared a three-month extension, or until April 30, last year for all PUV operators to comply.

But Manibela President Mar Valbuena said LTFRB chairman Teofilo Guadiz III and other officials under then DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista lied when they claimed that the consolidation rate already reached 86 percent after the deadline last year.

“No less than the new DOTr Secretary Vince Dizon said that out of the 86 percent that the LTFRB and the past DOTr administration have been saying, only 43 percent have indeed consolidated and the other 43 percent just submitted the application,” said Valbuena.

As a result, Valbuena said it was the jeepney operators and drivers who suffered since they have been the subject of operations since last year with penalties ranging from P2,000 to P50,000.

He argued that if only the LTFRB and the past DOTr leadership reported the real figure to the President, then the full implementation of the PUV modernization would have been reconsidered and no aggressive operations would have been launched against drivers and operators of the traditional jeepney.

This is the reason, he said, why they need to hold the three-day transport strike: to show how angry they are for what they described as the betrayal of the LTFRB and past DOTr administration to the jeepney operators and drivers.

“This early, we are asking for understanding from the riding public because starting Monday, we will be holding a transport strike for three days for the lying and for the betrayal we suffered,” said Valbuena.

He explained that they have no option but to hod the strike since it is the livelihood of all passenger jeepney drivers and operators that is at stake.

The modernization is currently under the second phase, the route rationalization, and soon, the program will gradually shift to grdual phase out of traditional jeepneys.

The group is also asking Dizon to sack all the DOTr officials involved.