TWENTY-TWO senators have signed a resolution urging the government to suspend its Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP), concluding that it was implemented without proper planning and was rushed. In so doing, they are swallowing hook, line and sinker the arguments from a noisy minority of jeepney drivers who have opposed any move to get them to replace their rundown, aging and diesel-burning vehicles.
The senators have also fallen for the line that the program was rushed when it actually began in 2017 and has been tweaked over the last seven years. In fact, in those "rushed" years, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board notes that the program has achieved an 80-percent consolidation rate for jeepneys. This reinforces the fact that the senators, in their ill-considered resolution, are putting a minority that refuses to play by the rules in the driver's seat.
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