LTFRB sets traditional jeeps' final trips on June 30, 2023

Most traditional jeepneys—the recognized kings of the country's roads and cultural icons recognizable even abroad—will have their final trips on the public transportation routes on June 30.

According to Joseph Morong's report on "24 Oras", the franchises of the traditional jeeps will expire on the said date after the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board extended four times the deadline for operators to form cooperatives.

The cooperatives are for operators to afford the purchase of modern jeeps worth at least P2.6 million each via loans from financial institutions.

“The CPC [Certificate of Public Conveyance] will be reverted to the state... It will be awarded [to those who have consolidated],” LTFRB Technical Division head Joel Bolano said.

Only the traditional jeeps of operators who are in the process of transitioning into a cooperative or corporation will be exempted from the June 30 deadline.

They are until December to finish the consolidation process.

“Siyempre hindi naman tayo papayag na walang masasakyan ang tao. Ia-address ng board yan," Bolano said.

(We won't allow a situation in which our commuters won't have anything to ride. The board will address that.)

"We just expect [compliance hopefully from the] stakeholders,” he added.

Some drivers of traditional jeeps said they might have to look for other sources of livelihood once their franchise expires.

“‘Yan ang hanapbuhay namin kaso kung ano ng gobyerno, wala kaming magagawa...Maghanap ng bagong panghanapbuhayan,” Rodrigo Zamora, a jeepney driver, said.

(This is our job but if that’s the government’s policy, we cannot do anything about it. We will look for other sources of livelihood.)

The government has said that the affected jeepney drivers and operators would be given cash assistance and training from the Department of Labor and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. —Sundy Locus/NB, GMA Integrated News