The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Region 9 (LTFRB-9) is set to launch the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) that will showcase modern vehicles.
LTFRB-9 director Nonito Llanos III said Saturday the launch of the PUVMP on October 9 here will see the participation of 10 manufacturers of modern vehicles and 40 transport cooperatives from the different parts of the region.
Llanos said the manufacturers will showcase modern and mini-buses like the ones servicing Taguig City in Metro Manila.
He said during the launch, cooperatives or corporations can take advantage of applying for loans from two government banks that offer very minimal interest rates and payable in seven years.
“Having cooperatives as operators of these modernized transport vehicles would also create more jobs,” Llanos said, citing Cebu City as an example where a cooperative has around 40 members.
“In the past, they operate one vehicle per individual, and after creating their cooperative, they had a number of vehicles while their employees reached more than a hundred for the vehicle maintenance, assistants for the drivers, among others. Having these large employees, it means that the cooperative is earning big while giving clean, efficient, environment-friendly and safe public utility vehicles,” he said.
He said each cooperative will be awarded travel routes exclusive for them, “so they are assured of having their income on such routes exclusively.”
He said the LTFRB requested the different local government units in the region to draw a local public transport route plan to determine, which cooperative and how many vehicles will operate and ply in a particular route so that there will be “a fair distribution of routes to all cooperatives.”
The LTFRB official said the first three corporations in the region that will comply with the government modernization program are the following: the Starlight Express of Midsalip town; Dipolog City’s Evergood Transit; and, Rural Transit Mindanao, Inc. (RTMI).
He said the modernization program will help protect the environment while providing a sustained livelihood to the stakeholders in the transport industry. (PNA)
