Transport groups PISTON and Manibela will hold a two-day transport strike starting on April 15 to protest the looming consolidation deadline of Public Utility Vehicles (PUVs).
“Wala na kaming iniisip ngayon kundi lumaban. Ipaglaban ang ating hanapbuhay. Hindi tayo susuko. Hindi tayo paaapi dito sa oligarkong namumuno sa ating bansa,” Manibela Chairman Mar Valbuena said in a press conference on Thursday, April 11.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier said that there would be no extension to the April 30 deadline for the consolidation requirement for the modernization program.
Marcos had pushed back the original December 2023 deadline for three months “to give an opportunity to those who expressed intention to consolidate but did not make the previous cut-off.”
The consolidation requirement urges jeepney drivers and operators to organize into cooperatives or cooperation to retain their franchise and ply routes.
Unconsolidated PUVs will face the loss of their franchise and ability to traverse routes of the metro, as said by LTFRB chief Teofilo Guadiz III.
“We will revoke those franchises, and we will only be allowing those who have consolidated to ply the routes of Metro Manila,” Guadiz said in a statement.
