SENATOR  Idol  Raffy Tulfo along with his fellow senators introduced on July 30 a Senate resolution expressing the sense of the Senate to temporarily suspend the implementation of the Public Transport Modernization Program (PTMP), formerly known as the PUV Modernization Program.

Those who authored Senate Resolution (SR) No. 1096 along with Tulfo include Senate President Francis Escudero, Majority Leader Francis Tolentino, Minority Leader Koko Pimentel, Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada; and Senators Nancy Binay, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Bato Dela Rosa, Loren Legarda, Imee Marcos, Robinhood Padilla, Grace Poe, Bong Revilla, Joel Villanueva, Cynthia Villar, Mark Villar and Migz Zubiri.

 It may be recalled that during the July 23 Senate hearing of the Committee on Public Services which Tulfo chairs, he found out that the modernization program is unplanned and rushed.

 “There is an urgent need to thoroughly review and reassess the impact of the program, to alleviate the fears of the drivers and transport operators who will be directly burdened by its implementation,” the resolution read.

In filing SR No. 1096, Tulfo and his colleagues highlighted the valid and urgent concerns raised by affected drivers, groups, unions, and transport cooperatives, particularly issues on consolidation into cooperatives.

The senators said that these small stakeholders, particularly the drivers who remain unconsolidated are effectively forced out of their livelihoods. This is caused by insufficiency of information drive on the part of the government to educate affected parties as well as the burden of financing the cost of modern PUVs.

Ultimately, the senators stressed that more consideration and clarifications are needed to be made by the Department of Transportation in order to address the concerns voiced by affected stakeholders, especially the drivers.

As for those who were already forced or volunteered to consolidate, they are still  free to ply their usual routes while review is ongoing.