Dec. 31 PUV consolidation deadline ‘stays’, says DOTr chief

The Dec. 31 deadline for consolidating public utility vehicle (PUV) operators and drivers will remain, Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista said on Friday, Dec. 29.

The transportation department is pushing for the PUV modernization program in a bid to modernize the country’s land transportation sector.

“The PUV consolidation deadline stays,” Bautista said in a statement.

“This initiative has gained the support of majority of our PUV operators as around 70 percent of them have already taken part in the consolidation process,” he went on.

Recently, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has allowed public utility vehicles (PUVs) that failed to consolidate into either a cooperative or corporation by the Dec. 31 deadline to operate until Jan. 31 of the following year.

Per the LTFRB Memorandum Circular 2023-052, the flexibility offered to drivers and operators who fail to reach the deadline is intended to ensure that commuters do not bear the brunt of a possible scarcity of public transportation, notably jeepneys.

Earlier, Jesus Ferdinand Ortega, chairperson of the DOTr’s Office of Transportation Cooperatives (OTC), assured that there will be no transport crisis next year.

Ortega stated major transport groups are prepared to assist in areas wherein only few drivers and operators consolidated.

The OTC chief reported that as of Dec. 15, less than 30 percent of the operators have consolidated in Metro Manila.

On Dec. 20, transport group Piston asked the Supreme Court (SC) to grant them a temporary restraining order against the franchise consolidation requirement under the PUV modernization program.

Piston claimed in its petition that mandatory consolidation violates the constitutional right to free association.