Our country’s mobility and transportation system crisis is an affront to our freedom of movement. The government negligence of the people’s fundamental right to move was highlighted when it continued to push for the public utility vehicle modernization program (PUVMP).
The government’s insistence on PUVMP forced jeepney drivers and operators to hold a nationwide week-long transport strike. It was only after the strike paralyzed at least 90 percent of Metro Manila routes that Malacañang temporarily suspended PUVMP and pledged to review the program. This, however, is only a reprieve.
The drivers’ two-day work stoppage showed the government and passengers alike what commuting would look like should PUVMP continue, as the true cost of a bad mobility system is passed onto the commuting public. Unless the Marcos administration heeds the drivers’ demands, the next transport strike is just a matter of when, not if. Unless the state recognizes and acts on its vital role to fix the country’s ailing public transport system, both commuters and those in the transport sector will remain at the losing end.
Public transportation’s very role is to conveniently send people off to their destination. But here in the country, especially in urban centers, commuting traps us at a standstill and has become an obstruction to our daily routine—education, work, leisure. As a result, it has not only been a hindrance but also a recurring miserable experience in our daily lives. The erosion of our right to mobility has resulted in the violation of every other right that relies on our ability to move.
A bad commuting system prevents the public from accessing basic services—nutrition, education, health care—especially in underserved areas where mass transit is limited. The right to quality education is violated when students sacrifice rest just to attend classes on time, and the right to work is jeopardized when workers are penalized for arriving late at work. In Metro Manila alone, transportation is more of a bane than a boon as commuters are forced to spend more than 241 hours a year in traffic, according to the 2022 TomTom Traffic Index.
Individual rights are not the only ones at risk–people’s collective rights are also subject to peril. Under the PUVMP’s consolidation policy, jeepney drivers must surrender their individual franchises and become private cooperatives under the transport department’s Office of Transportation Cooperatives. This effectively makes the program a union-busting scheme by effectively dissolving existing transport unions and with it, their rights to organize, strike and collectively bargain.
Transport groups like PISTON have always supported transport modernization, but it should be understood that these kinds of development should never be at the expense of PUV drivers and operators. Modernization is not robbing drivers of their livelihood. Most certainly, modernization should not be depriving the public of an affordable commute.
By privatizing jeepney units, the state is selling out virtually all commute routes to the highest bidder and to the corporation which can integrate as many jeepney units as quickly as possible. Under this arrangement, public transport is no longer a public good but a money-making scheme by the private sector.
This trend of corporate capture, however, isn’t only happening to PUVs. Even transport infrastructure is slowly being taken over by large conglomerates. Big-ticket projects like the NLEX-SLEX connector, Skyway Stage 3, and Metro Manila Subway Project, which are all seen to reduce traffic congestion, are funded and shall be eventually controlled by the private sector. This renders the government powerless in regulation and forcing better services. Aside from the lack of state control, the hands-off approach in solving the transport crisis shifts the burden to the commuting public to deal with the exorbitant toll fees and unabated fare hikes, especially at a time when the prices of commodities are skyrocketing.
We recognize, nonetheless, the palliative effects that these transport projects could bring—but that in itself remains an uncertainty. Government projects, especially big-ticket ones, are tainted with red tape and bureaucracy, and it could take years, if not decades, for the public to reap the benefits of these road and rail programs. That is, if they are even affordable for the Filipino people to use, to begin with. What boils down at the center of the country’s mobility crisis is an infringement of the Filipino people’s fundamental right to live healthy and decent lives.
The government’s negligence in addressing the transportation crisis is an affront to our rights, tantamount to the state’s abandonment of its basic responsibility to its citizens. The abrogation of its role to provide a decent way of living for its citizens is in lockstep with the corporate capture of our fundamental rights. As they eviscerate the basic foundations of our existence, it is no surprise that the people’s resistance will emerge from all corners–with the transportation strike just the beginning.
Inasmuch as the government attempted to downplay the strike by providing free shuttle services, the two-day transport stoppage has shown where the true power resides. Had it not been for the transport groups’ determination to assert their opposition to the PUVMP, schools and offices would not be forced to suddenly shift to remote work. And had it not been for the strike, the government and the public would not be able to see the true strength of collective action. The irony doesn’t escape us: The state promotes PUVMP as a solution to make transportation eco-friendly and healthier, yet the public will be trapped into further commuting woes should a jeepney phaseout push through.
The transport sector’s fight against the sham of modernization that the government still imposes is linked to the commuting public’s demand for a humane and people-centered transport system. Every possible government resource, then, must be placed to address this social ill. In the immediate, the government must seek to repeal all the policies that prevent public utility vehicles from operating anew. For PUV operators, this means abolishing the restrictive omnibus franchising guidelines in favor of returning the five-year franchise agreements to all jeepney operators.
The cruelty of our mobility situation still requires lasting solutions from the state. Once the government flexes its regulatory muscle, it can force operators–including the privatized expressways and train lines–to increase their efficiency and reliability. The jeepney drivers’ demands for a just transition toward a pro-people modernization program must be heeded. Instead of privatization and phaseout, the government must instead redirect its resources to rehabilitate traditional jeepney units, and in the process, dole out financial and technical aid, especially for small operators.
All avenues must be explored by the state to solve the transportation crisis, but it must do so with the people’s interests as the foremost consideration. It is only when the state starts treating mobility as an inalienable right can it only provide meaningful and people-centric solutions to our crisis. The work does not end until no more Filipinos experience undue suffering from our broken systems. ●
