PISTON asks Supreme Court to act on TRO plea vs. PTMP

Transport group PISTON on Monday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to act on its December 2023 petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the public transport modernization program (PTMP).

In a six-page motion, PISTON national president Mody Floranda asked the Court to resolve its petition “to prevent grave and irreparable injury on the part of the petitioners, the other operators and drivers, the commuters, and all their families and the public in general.”

“Ngayong araw po naghain po kami ng motion to resolve. Hinahamon po namin ang SC na pagpasyahan na ang aming aplikasyon para sa TRO o kaya preliminary injunction,” Atty. Kristina Conti, PISTON’s legal counsel, said.

(Today we filed a motion to resolve. We are calling on the SC to decide on our application for a TRO or preliminary injunction.)

“Matagal na rin po ito eh, finile namin nung nakaraang taon (This has been pending for a long time, we filed this last year),” she added.

Under the PTMP, jeepney drivers and operators must join or form cooperatives. They may also apply for new franchises but as part of transport cooperatives.

In December 2023, Floranda and others asked the Court to issue a TRO or writ of preliminary injunction against several issuances of the program.

Among the issuances mentioned were Department of Transportation (DOTr) Department Order No. 2017-11, which serves as the framework for the PUVMP, and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) MC 2023-051, which set the deadline for the consolidation.

The petitioners filed an amended petition in April to include new issuances.

The LTFRB previously said that PUVs that did not consolidate after the April 30 deadline would be deemed as “colorum” or a PUV operating without a franchise.

However, Conti said that it seemed as if the DOTr and the LTFRB were issuing TROs for themselves as they kept extending the deadline.

She said a memorandum issued in July suspends the policy for routes that have a low number of consolidated units.

“Ang lumalabas, tini-TRO ng DOTr at ng LTFRB ang mga sarili nila. Kaya baka panahon na para magkaroon tayo ng mas maayos na sistema na mismong ang SC ang magsasabi na itigil na muna natin ‘yan bago natin pagpasyahan ang merito ng mga argumento,” she said.

(It appears that the DOTr and LTFRB are stopping themselves. Perhaps it's time for us to have a better system where the SC itself tells us to stop this first while we deliberate on the merits of the arguments.)

For his part, Floranda said that the transport strike of MANIBELA and PISTON was ongoing as of posting time.

The two transport groups will hold a strike from September 23 to September 24 in protest of the program. —AOL, GMA Integrated News