Will jeepneys be back? Palace says modern jeepney is the option

Published June 04, 2020 05:00 PM By LLANESCA T. PANTI, GMA News

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Jr. could not say if existing jeepneys will still be allowed to ply the roads amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roque made the response when asked how the government plans to address the fears of public utility jeepney (PUJ) drivers that they will no longer be allowed to ply the streets again amid the ongoing quarantine and the government’s push for modernized jeepneys, which amounts to as much as P1.6 million per unit.

“Gagawin po natin ang lahat para matulungan po sila na magkaroon ng hanapbuhay using the modernized jeepneys,” he said in a briefing Thursday.

“Ganun po talaga, sa modernization, we have to allow the new jeepneys to come in,” he added.

The PUV modernization project will ban old public utility vehicles, including jeepneys aged 15 years and above, from plying the roads and replace them with e-jeepneys.

Based on government records, there are at least 170,000 PUJs across the country.

Aside from the hefty price tag of the modern jeep, the PUV modernization program also requires drivers who do not own the jeepneys they are driving to affiliate themselves with cooperatives which are financially capable of buying the new jeepneys because the government will only issue franchise to operate to cooperatives, not individuals.

Once they are a part of a cooperative, drivers will work depending on the shift designated to them unlike in the present set up where they can ply the road whenever they want, save for a day because of the number coding scheme.

Jeepney drivers as contact tracers still uncertain

Likewise, Roque could not also give a timeline on the delivery of additional aid for PUJ drivers.

“Hinahanda po ang pangatlong buwan ng ayuda, at inaayos na po ang hanapbuhay para sa kanila bilang contact tracers,”  Roque said.

However, Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said that contract tracers should come from the medical field and allied field.

Sought for comment on Roque’s pronouncements, Vergeire said that the Inter-Agency Task Force—the policy making body of the government amid the COVID-19 pandemic—is yet to decide if the policy of hiring jeepney drivers as contact tracers will be adopted.

“The qualifications mentioned before for contact tracers were recommendations from DOH based on the tasks that contact tracers are assigned to do. Since DILG is the lead agency, it will be for discussion how we will reconcile these qualifications and how we can discuss the tasks based from the recommendations coming from the Office of the President,” Vergeire said. —AOL, GMA News
 

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