Transport groups to hold another protest action vs. jeepney phaseout

Transport groups are set to stage on Monday another protest action against the government's plan to phaseout old jeepey units.

At a press conference on Saturday in Quezon City, transport group Piston and the No to Jeepney Phaseout Coalition lined up activities for their July 17 protest action, which will start at 7 a.m.

Protesters will gather at the Quezon Elliptical Circle and will proceed to the Mendiola Bridge area near Malacañang in Manila.

PISTON's national president George San Mateo said that the protest action aims to call the attention of President Rogdrigo Duterte on the need for another meeting to discuss the proposed jeepney modernization program by the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

In earlier statements,  San Mateo stressed that the modernization program is nothing more than a transport business model that gives the transportation sector away to big corporations.

Also, San Mateo said that under the modernization program, the units the DOTr is proposing as replacement for old jeepneys are too expensive. 

PISTON, instead, is urging the government to allow jeepney operators to rehabilitate their units rather than phase them out.

If the DOTr program will be implemented, some 600,000 jeepney drivers and 300,000 small operators will lose their livelihood.

San Mateo fears that President Duterte might report the DOTr's phaseout program as one of accomplishments of his administration during his second State of the Nation Address on July 24.

PISTON and the  No to Jeepney Phaseout Coalition vowed  to oppose the DOTr's program. —LBG, GMA News