Motorists and vehicles travel along a road amid traffic jam in Manila on November 24, 2023. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP)
Philippine jeepney drivers started a 12-day strike on Monday to protest the phaseout of the iconic public transportation that would give way to carbon-free mini buses.
They’re demonstrating against a Dec. 31 government deadline for jeepney operators to surrender their franchises and consolidate into cooperatives in line with a program to replace the ubiquitous, gas-guzzling vehicles with mini buses whose motors are mostly powered by electricity. Public transport operators are also asking for more financial support to make the shift.
About 70% of operators have already committed to participate in the program, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said last week, and they can continue providing services until end 2024. Those who won’t meet the yearend deadline would immediately lose their permits to operate.
While the six-year-old program supports the country’s goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by the end of the decade from 2020 levels, the government wants to balance the initiative by shielding those affected by the shift to EV and prevent them from losing their livelihood.
For the drivers’ group Manibela, the impact of the transition to EV is going to be worse than the effect of the pandemic that idled much of public transport.
The jeepneys are the cheapest mode of transport for many of the nation’s 110 million people.
It remains to be seen how the government will react to one of the longest transport protests in the country considering that previous attempts failed to paralyze public transport. Earlier this year, official data showed that only 4% of the roughly 160,000 jeepneys have been replaced by EVs.
