Outdated and outmoded ideas

JEEPNEY groups once again went on strike last week to press their campaign to junk the government's Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).

As they did in the past, the groups claimed they were successful at paralyzing public transport in Metro Manila, while government agencies reported that the exact opposite was true. The truth was probably somewhere in between.

But like their rundown and aging vehicles, the tactics of the groups Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) and Samahang Manibela Mananakay at Nagkaisang Terminal ng Transportasyon (Manibela) are outdated and ineffective, and do nothing but inconvenience the public they are supposed to serve and make the government expend time and resource1s to deal with any disruption that may occur.

In the meantime, in calling for the government to suspend the program while it is being reviewed, politicians are really just kicking the can down the road, hoping that someone else would take care of the political hot potato later on. But that “can” began its journey in 2017, when the administration of then-president Rodrigo Duterte introduced the PUVMP to replace old, dirty, diesel-guzzling jeepneys with safer, more fuel-efficient and more comfortable vehicles that do not pollute the environment.

When the striking drivers complain about “the rush” to implement the program, they are really talking about the seven years it took for two successive administrations to get to this point, where 80 percent of all jeepney units nationwide — and more than half of those in Metro Manila — have consolidated into cooperatives or companies in preparation for buying and operating the subsidized modern jeepneys.

In all this time, the holdouts against the PUVMP have gone on strike each time a government deadline under the program approaches. In each instance, they have been aided by sympathetic lawmakers and politicians hitching a ride on the “pro-poor” wagon, urging the government to put the program on hold while they consult with the striking jeepney drivers and operators and other stakeholders.

Now, they have been joined by business and trade union groups under the umbrella of “the Leaders Forum,” which includes the Employers Confederation of Philippines and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce, the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc., and trade unions Federation of Free Workers and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines. Strange bedfellows, indeed.

Strangely, too, the business groups have begun using words like “just transition” for the jeepney operators and drivers, a term they would surely not use when it comes to negotiating with their workers who seek higher wages.

Yet, in trying to burnish their “pro-poor” credentials, these business groups ignore the fact that the striking jeepney drivers and operators have remained poor after all these years by doing precisely what they have been doing and that the government has a responsibility to regulate mass public transport to make it cleaner, safer and more comfortable for the commuting public.

In taking the side of recalcitrant jeepney drivers and owners, they ignore the fact that 80 percent of jeepney drivers and operators nationwide have already organized themselves into cooperatives or companies in preparation for modernizing their fleet under the PUVMP. If these drivers and operators were able to follow the consolidation schedule, why should the holdouts be given special treatment? Why disadvantage the majority who have already complied with the modernization program?

Critics of the modernization program say it provides “a window of opportunity for the corporate takeover of small-capacity public transportation in the Philippines,” as if this were necessarily undesirable when economies of scale are very often an advantageous way of organizing operations.

We subscribe to the concept that no one should be left behind in economic or industrial changes, but these striking jeepney drivers have had years to adapt to the coming change — but chose not to.

In business, a combination of market conditions and technological innovations can quickly render certain jobs and occupations obsolete. Smart workers can adjust by learning new skills and finding new — and better — ways to make a living. Their first instinct is not to go on strike or go to court, in the belief that society owes them a living and that it is their right to keep doing their old jobs, even though they are no longer needed.