Philippine Asian News Today Vol 19 No 24 | Page 28

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PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY December 16 - 31, 2017
RP News and More...
Jeepney phaseout begins January 2018
It’s the end of the
road for the country’s iconic
jeepney.
Beginning next week,
the Department of Trans-
portation (DOTr) will remove
jeepneys that are at least 15
years old from streets as part
of the government’s transport
modernization program.
DOTr Undersecretary
Thomas Orbos yesterday said
they would start taking out
the “problematic” jeepneys
beginning January – the start
of a three-year transition pe-
riod.
Orbos stressed they
could not physically remove
all old jeepneys from the road
at the same time but over
three years, or until 2021.
He said the DOTr will
launch the Motor Vehicle In-
spection System (MVIS) to de-
termine the age of a jeepney
and its roadworthiness.
Under the government’s
modernization
program,
jeepneys 15 years and older
will be replaced by electric-
powered or Euro 4 compliant
vehicles.
Euro 4 is a set of emis-
sion standards on particulate
matter, carbon monoxide, ni-
trogen oxides and hydrocar-
bons.
The venerable jeepney,
an icon of the post-war era, is
powered by Euro 2-compliant
engines.
Other proposed specifi-
cations for the improved pub-
lic vehicles include closed-cir-
cuit television cameras, a GPS
navigation system, automatic
fare collection system, dash
cameras and Wi-Fi.
The PUV modernization
program seeks to phase out
old and dilapidated jeepneys
and replace them with high-
quality transport systems that
are environment-friendly and
have greater capacity.
The program was offi-
cially launched on June 19. It
is also seen as a solution to
decongest the traffic-choked
A jeepney driver protests the government program to phase
out jeepneys during a rally last September near the Land
Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board main office
in Quezon City. Michael Varcas
streets of the country’s urban
areas.
Financial assistance
Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n
Secretary Arthur Tugade said
the jeepney modernization
program is “not-anti poor.”
Tugade
said
the
program is not designed to
phase out the jeepney or the
business but to guarantee its
profitability.
The
government,
under
the
Development
Bank of the Philippines’
Program
assistance
to
Support Alternative Driving
Approaches
(PASADA),
promised
to
provide
assistance amounting to P1.5
billion to transport firms and
cooperatives to purchase new
PUVs.
PASADA’s key features
are the five-percent equity for
vehicle purchase, six-percent
interest rate and seven-year
repayment period.
The eligible borrowers of
the program include transport
companies and cooperatives
which have been qualified
to receive franchise under
the Omnibus Franchising
Guidelines.
Heavier traffic by next year
Expect heavier traffic in
2018, especially in Metro Ma-
nila, as the government be-
gins its massive infrastructure
projects, Orbos said.
Orbos said they will
start constructing all of the in-
frastructure projects in 2018,
which will cause heavy traf-
fic until the end of Duterte’s
term.
“So many projects next
year, which is part of the
building program… they will
all start simultaneously un-
til the end of the term of the
President,” Orbos said.
“In order for us to have
better infrastructure, we need
to go through this heavy traf-
fic, which will start next year…
Just remember we will all
benefit from it,” he said.
Orbos said they will start
constructing the Light Rail
Transit Line 1 (LRT1) Cavite
extension, the Light Rail Tran-
sit Line 2 (LRT2) East exten-
sion, Metro Rail Transit Line 7
(MRT7) and the North Luzon
Expressway (NLEX) Harbor
Link Segment 10 in Caloocan
City and several bridges in
Metro Manila.
He said most affected
by the traffic is the entire
stretch of EDSA.
With the looming hor-
rendous traffic, Orbos, who is
also the general manager of
the Metropolitan Manila De-
velopment Authority (MMDA),
appealed for understanding
as he emphasized the prob-
lem is part of the long-term
solutions to the traffic.
“There are already cor-
responding actions of the
government to address this
not in terms of traffic decon-
gestion, but we are looking at
permanent solutions in the
long run,” he said.
For the meantime, the
public should be more pa-
tient, he said.(R. Ramirez,
PS)
Duterte vetoes 4 items in 2018 budget
President
Rodrigo
Duterte vetoed 4 items in the
P3.7 trillion national budget for
2018 that he signed last week,
according to his message to
lawmakers.
Duterte said the vetoed
items “do not relate to some
particular appropriation and are
introduced with the purpose of
amending existing laws and
rules.”
The President excluded
the grant of monitoring
expenses for the Movie
and Television Review and
Classification Board, saying its
members were are authorized
to receive honoraria or per
diems for official functions