THE Department of Transportation (DOTr) has approved an additional equity subsidy for consolidated public utility vehicle (PUV) operators operating modern jeepneys. But while Cebu operators welcomed the subsidy, they said congestion on the streets will continue to make meeting their daily expenses difficult.
On August 31, 2023, DOTr Secretary Jaime Bautista had already signed Department Order (DO) 2023-018 amending a provision of DO 2018-016 and increasing the equity subsidy to P280,000 from the current P160,000 per unit.
Operators who purchase Class 1 PUV units will be given P210,000 per unit as subsidy, while those who purchase Class 2, 3 or 4 units will receive P280,000 per unit as subsidy, the DOTr said.
The new equity subsidy approval is meant to make it easier for transport companies to buy new, modern public transport vehicles while lowering monthly payment costs for existing ones.
The subsidy will be subject to the Special Loan Facilities of the Program Assistance to Support Alternative Driving Approaches (Pasada) of the Development Bank of the Philippines, and Special Package for Environment-Friendly and Efficiently-Driven Public Utility Vehicles (Speed PUV) of the Land Bank of the Philippines.
Last March, DOTr Undersecretary Mark Steven Pastor said a Class 1 modern jeepney costs P1.4 million to P1.8 million while a Class 2 unit costs from P2 million to P2.6 million, and a Class 3 unit from P2.5 million to P3 million.
Federation of Cebu Transport Cooperatives (FCTC) president Ellen Maghanoy told SunStar Cebu Friday, October 13, that the subsidy is good news because it will help with the monthly payments on the the bank loans for the purchase of the modern vehicle units.
“Lipay kaayo ana mga operator. Dili magdungan atong kalabad sa atong ulo ba nga unsa na sad atong ipang additional na ibayad sa monthly amortization,” said Maghanoy.
(Operators will be very happy with that. It won’t add to their headache on where to look for additional income to pay the monthly amortization.)
Without citing the class of vehicle, Maghanoy said a modern jeepney cost P2.5 million earlier this year, but that the cost has now shot up to P2.75 million. She said the monthly loan payments are around P40,000 to P45,000 a month.
But she emphasized that the situation for operators will still be difficult because the difficult traffic situation is taking the income of jeepney operators.
“Lisod gyud kaayo ron atong mga modern jeepney, sir, tungod sa pagka traffic sa atoang kadalanan sa Cebu City,” said Maghanoy.
(Our modern jeepney operators are really having a hard time now, sir, because of the immense traffic on the streets of Cebu City.)
Maghanoy said the number of trips for operators has decreased from an average of eight trips daily to just around five or six trips.
Maghanoy asked the government to find solutions to the traffic problem, saying the income of operators depends on the number of trips their drivers can make.
Under the PUV Modernization Program, which was originally supposed to run from 2017 to 2020, old and traditional jeepneys will be replaced with high-quality and environment-friendly vehicles with bigger capacity, and these should be operated under a cooperative for the approval of their provisional authority for franchise.
Some transport groups, however, have complained about the modernization program, citing the added burden a loan for the purchase of new vehicles would foist on them, especially amid the increase in food and gas prices that has already made meeting basic daily living expenses difficult.