Senators Slams DOTr Over Plans For PUV Modernization
PUV MODERNIZATION – The proposed plan of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) for the modernization of old public utility vehicles was grilled by Senators during the 2020 budget hearing.
The Senators were not that happy about the progress of their jeepney phaseout plan set for 2020. During the hearing, Senator Franklin Drilon grilled the DOTr.
“There are 170,000 jeepneys to be replaced by 85,000 modern jeeps, tama ba yun?”, he asked DOTr. Afterward, he was answered by transport secretary Mark Richmund de Leon.
According to the transport secretary, he was basing the numbers on their experience of one route, which is Taguig. Drilon then gave a huge sigh of dissatisfaction with the answer he received.
“My goodness gracious, for such a major project huh? It’s so disappointing Mr. Secretary”. Drilon said. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian also gave his thoughts on the PUV modernization plan.
He said that it was hard to comply with the documents required when it came to the financing. Gatchalian added that the bank had high-interest rates and the technology required gave huge problems.
In lieu of this, Gatchalian stated that the program needs to be revisited. “There are a lot of bottlenecks, that’s why the take-up as reflected in the documents, mabagal na mabagal”, the Senator said.
Nancy Binay also chimed in on the subject. She asked the DOTr “Yung target nyu’ sa 2020, wala na yun’?”
Arthur Tugade answered Binay saying that they still have their target in 2020. He added that even though their time to complete the project would run out, they could still extend.
Based on a report by ANC, the number of new vehicles provided is 575, with a loan value of P1 billion. There were also 1,238 vehicles in the pipeline, which would give a total of 1.813 vehicles.
That is still only 2% of the estimated 85,000 units projected by the DOTr. With this, Tugade called for the approval of DOTR’s budget, especially for their aviation projects, which was approved later in the hearing.
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