Thousands of small public\nutility jeepney (PUJ) drivers have lost as much as Php78,000 each from three\nmonths of mass transport suspensions since the lockdown. The government has\nbeen insensitive and stingy assistance has pushed jeepney drivers and their\nfamilies into poverty, said the group. Their troubles risk becoming permanent\nwith the government exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to keep small drivers and\noperators off the road to fast-track its jeepney phaseout program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Duterte administration\nsuspended mass transport, including jeepneys, when it declared enhanced\ncommunity quarantines (ECQ) in Luzon then in other parts of the country in\nmid-March. Quarantine measures have since eased to general community quarantine\n(GCQ) in many areas and public transport has resumed in phases. The first phase\nstarted in June 1 and the second is due to begin on June 22. Jeepneys, however,\nwill still remain prohibited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PUJ drivers have suffered lost\nincomes for over three months already, IBON said. Among them are the estimated 55,000-70,000\njeepney drivers in Metro Manila. For instance, before the ECQ, drivers plying\nthe MCU-Rotonda via Taft route earned an average of Php1,000 per day after a\n12-hour shift, net of boundary and fuel expenses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeepney drivers on this route\nusually worked six days a week. This means that, to date, they have lost some\n78 working days over the past 3 months or 13 weeks of suspended mass transport.\nThis translates to a total net income loss of Php78,000 or Php26,000 per month\nof lockdown, said IBON. Out of work jeepney drivers lose Income with each\npassing day of transport suspension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group stressed that\ngovernment assistance has been far from enough to make up for these lost\nincomes. The social welfare department reports only 36,200 jeepney drivers\ngetting cash aid in the past three months. Even then, some jeepney drivers only\nreceived one tranche of the Php5,000-8,000 of social amelioration and it remains\nunclear if they will even get the second tranche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many small jeepney drivers\nand operators could become permanently out of work, particularly in Metro\nManila, IBON said. Transport officials are\nusing the mass transport suspension to force the phaseout of traditional jeepneys\nby only allowing modernized jeepneys to run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the Land Transportation\nFranchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB)\u2019s Memo Circular 2020-017 on public\ntransport guidelines in GCQ areas, only modernized jeepneys and traditional\njeepneys under a corporation or cooperative are allowed to operate. This leaves\nout small jeepney operators and drivers who, unlike big or corporate fleet\noperators, can ill-afford the costly Php1.6\u20132.2 million modernized units, or\nsteep fees and requirements to form a cooperative. They are even less able after\nthree months of lost incomes and depleted savings, if any. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON said that the livelihoods of thousands of small jeepney drivers and operators are at stake. Instead of putting corporate interests first and pushing its phaseout program, the government should give immediate cash assistance to drivers and their families who have suffered three months of lost incomes. It should also support drivers and operators in upgrading or replacing their units to meet safety, health and environmental standards.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEWS<\/p>\n
Thousands of small jeepney drivers have lost as much as Php78,000 each from three months of mass transport suspensions since the lockdown. The government has been insensitive and stingy assistance has pushed jeepney drivers and their families into poverty.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,14],"tags":[2199,2218,347,2291,1106,2292,1105],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9837,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834\/revisions\/9837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}